Periodic Reporting for period 2 - GUIDEPREP (Growing Up in Digital Europe Preparation Phase (GUIDEPREP))
Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2025-03-31
The Growing Up in Digital Europe Preparatory Phase (GUIDEPREP) project develops the research infrastructure necessary to implement the GUIDE birth cohort study, Europe’s first comparative birth cohort study of children’s and young people’s wellbeing. The aim of the GUIDE study is to track children’s personal wellbeing and psychosocial development, in combination with key indicators of children’s homes, neighbourhoods, and schools, across Europe. Together these measurements will enable researchers from multiple fields to analyse children’s wellbeing in response to children’s experiences of growing up in different European Member States. Member States and Associated Country will provide nationally representative samples, designed to retain statistical power throughout the lifetime of the study. They will be surveyed at regular intervals using input harmonized questionnaires and other measurements, until children are 24-years old. The harmonized design will create the first internationally comparable, nationally representative, longitudinal study of children and young people in Europe. GUIDE will be an important source of evidence in developing social policies for children, young people, and families across Europe for years to come.
The main objectives of the GUIDEPREP project are:
1. To establish the operation of the GUIDE Central Hub. We will establish the Central Hub’s human resources, electronic communication, financial and data management, and risk mitigation strategies.
2. To apply for GUIDE to become a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). To achieve this objective, we will design the GUIDE ERIC technical and scientific description, and statutes and draft the ERIC application. The resources designed for the ERIC application will facilitate funding decisions and commitments from Member States and Associated Countries.
3. To secure financial commitments from Member States and Associated Countries. We will achieve this objective by establishing a Political Support Committee, commitments and sponsorship drives, a national roadmaps drive, a GUIDE promotional campaign, and an international roadshow.
4. To develop the GUIDE survey methodology. This objective will be achieved by establishing key scientific advisory groups, finalising the design of the GUIDE sampling, recruitment, instruments, questionnaires, and fieldwork, and obtaining ethical approval for the first waves of the GUIDE survey.
5. To increase GUIDE’s scientific impact. The scientific methodology of the GUIDE survey will be documented and made open access through an edited volume called the GUIDE Book. The GUIDE Book will serve as a roadmap for the first wave of the GUIDE study and will be an accessible exemplar of European cohort study design for the scientific community.
6. To increase GUIDE’s policy impact. Data from the GUIDE pilot study of the draft questionnaires in Ireland, France, Croatia, and Finland (via project Coordinate), will be repurposed for a policy maker audience in GUIDEPREP.
7. To develop the cohort studies expertise of early career research fellows distributed across Europe. This objective will be achieved by an education and mentoring programme supporting the work of a select group of GUIDE Fellows who will provide the main staffing for GUIDEPREP.
1. To establish the operation of the GUIDE Central Hub. We will establish the Central Hub’s human resources, electronic communication, financial and data management, and risk mitigation strategies.
2. To apply for GUIDE to become a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). To achieve this objective, we will design the GUIDE ERIC technical and scientific description, and statutes and draft the ERIC application. The resources designed for the ERIC application will facilitate funding decisions and commitments from Member States and Associated Countries.
3. To secure financial commitments from Member States and Associated Countries. We will achieve this objective by establishing a Political Support Committee, commitments and sponsorship drives, a national roadmaps drive, a GUIDE promotional campaign, and an international roadshow.
4. To develop the GUIDE survey methodology. This objective will be achieved by establishing key scientific advisory groups, finalising the design of the GUIDE sampling, recruitment, instruments, questionnaires, and fieldwork, and obtaining ethical approval for the first waves of the GUIDE survey.
5. To increase GUIDE’s scientific impact. The scientific methodology of the GUIDE survey will be documented and made open access through an edited volume called the GUIDE Book. The GUIDE Book will serve as a roadmap for the first wave of the GUIDE study and will be an accessible exemplar of European cohort study design for the scientific community.
6. To increase GUIDE’s policy impact. Data from the GUIDE pilot study of the draft questionnaires in Ireland, France, Croatia, and Finland (via project Coordinate), will be repurposed for a policy maker audience in GUIDEPREP.
7. To develop the cohort studies expertise of early career research fellows distributed across Europe. This objective will be achieved by an education and mentoring programme supporting the work of a select group of GUIDE Fellows who will provide the main staffing for GUIDEPREP.
By achieving these objectives, the GUIDE study will be ready for initial implementation beginning in 2026 with a full-scale pilot study and continuing in 2027 with the first wave of fieldwork. This overarching outcome will facilitate several other key outcomes of GUIDEPREP as described below.
The European Research Area (ERA) will be enhanced by GUIDE, which will be developed during GUIDEPREP. GUIDE will achieve a structuring effect on the European RI ecosystem by becoming the third operational cohort study in the ESFRI Roadmap. Specifically, GUIDE will create a balanced coverage of the life course by providing data on infant and child development to complement the existing cohort studies (GGP, SHARE) and cross-sectional study (ESS) that have collected pan-European data on adults.
GUIDEPREP will further synergies with the three other survey RIs that are already developing as we progress GUIDE. We are drawing on the academic and technological knowhow of ESS, GGP, and SHARE in finalising the GUIDE survey methodology. GUIDEPREP will allow us to further integrate with these RIs through our GUIDE specific development of their existing fieldwork and data management protocols, and CAPI programming (Objective 4). In GUIDEPREP we will be working on technological solutions secure data management and communications (Objective 1) which will then be available for those RIs to adopt.
GUIDEPREP will increase the scientific excellence of the European landscape of sustainable RIs by providing technological advances for cohort study management as we develop the Central Hub systems for data management, financial management, and communications through our work package to develop the Central Hub (Objective 1). We will also increase knowledge excellence through our review of survey methodology and final design work for the GUIDE survey (Objective 4) which will be disseminated through an open access publication (Objective 5). This work will be conducted by future leaders in cohort studies methodology who we will appoint and mentor through the GUIDE Fellows programme (Objective 7).
Finally, GUIDEPREP will enable funders to make investments more securely in the GUIDE study, by informing funders through a financial commitments / sponsorship package (in Objective 3) that will be developed in tandem with the updating of the GUIDE cost-book (in Objective 1). This updated financial information will be based on the outcomes of the requirements for running the Central Hub (Objective 1) and the updated GUIDE methodology (Objective 5). The social value created by making these investments will be emphasised for funders through the examples of policy relevant findings created from the GUIDE COORDINATE pilot study data (Objective 6).
The European Research Area (ERA) will be enhanced by GUIDE, which will be developed during GUIDEPREP. GUIDE will achieve a structuring effect on the European RI ecosystem by becoming the third operational cohort study in the ESFRI Roadmap. Specifically, GUIDE will create a balanced coverage of the life course by providing data on infant and child development to complement the existing cohort studies (GGP, SHARE) and cross-sectional study (ESS) that have collected pan-European data on adults.
GUIDEPREP will further synergies with the three other survey RIs that are already developing as we progress GUIDE. We are drawing on the academic and technological knowhow of ESS, GGP, and SHARE in finalising the GUIDE survey methodology. GUIDEPREP will allow us to further integrate with these RIs through our GUIDE specific development of their existing fieldwork and data management protocols, and CAPI programming (Objective 4). In GUIDEPREP we will be working on technological solutions secure data management and communications (Objective 1) which will then be available for those RIs to adopt.
GUIDEPREP will increase the scientific excellence of the European landscape of sustainable RIs by providing technological advances for cohort study management as we develop the Central Hub systems for data management, financial management, and communications through our work package to develop the Central Hub (Objective 1). We will also increase knowledge excellence through our review of survey methodology and final design work for the GUIDE survey (Objective 4) which will be disseminated through an open access publication (Objective 5). This work will be conducted by future leaders in cohort studies methodology who we will appoint and mentor through the GUIDE Fellows programme (Objective 7).
Finally, GUIDEPREP will enable funders to make investments more securely in the GUIDE study, by informing funders through a financial commitments / sponsorship package (in Objective 3) that will be developed in tandem with the updating of the GUIDE cost-book (in Objective 1). This updated financial information will be based on the outcomes of the requirements for running the Central Hub (Objective 1) and the updated GUIDE methodology (Objective 5). The social value created by making these investments will be emphasised for funders through the examples of policy relevant findings created from the GUIDE COORDINATE pilot study data (Objective 6).