We finally experienced our first face-to-face meeting of the COORDINATE consortium. The meeting took place on 28-29 June 2022 at the headquarters of the University of Groningen, an imposing building dating back to 1614. It was very necessary and pleasant to meet all COORDINATE partners in person. We exchanged information about the ongoing work on the project activities and planned the further work. In such a complex and far-reaching project, many tasks and activities have to be harmonised well.
Special attention has been given to transnational access visits of scientists to key research infrastructures relevant to European research on child wellbeing. The second call for these visits will be issued on August 29th. Participants will benefit from improved access to up-to-date infrastructural data platforms. In addition to improving access to international cohort panel survey data in the study of children's growing up, crucial activities of the project are related to the design of the GUIDE /EuroCohort survey to ensure comparability of measurement instruments and procedures of well-being from existing longitudinal and cross-sectional surveys of children and adolescents in Europe. In this regard, one of the main objectives of the project is to promote data harmonisation and provide solutions in the form of a guide for the harmonisation of cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys of child well-being in Europe.
It was interesting to learn more about the pre-pilot activities that will start in January 2023 in selected countries, with special focus on the cross-cultural adaptation of the questionnaires for 8-year-old children and the parents of new-born and 8-year-old children. So much knowledge and work go into it.
It is crucial that widespread information and publicity campaigns are carried out in the countries where the pilot study GUIDE is being conducted. We would like to disseminate information about the importance and usefulness of longitudinal data on children's growing up and well-being in Europe among all key stakeholders in order to gain the necessary support for the 25-year longitudinal research.
Although we are very much looking forward to a summer break, we will beimplementingpromotional activities in the coming weeks for a 2-day 'Train the Trainer' workshop on 'Delivering an Introductory Course on Longitudinal and Cohort Data to Non-scientific Users'. The workshop will take place in The Hague in the Netherlands in September 2022 (for more information see: https://www.coordinate-network.eu/post/extended-deadline-for-applications-apply-to-become-a-champion-trainer-on-longitudinal-studies).
The opportunity to exchange our ideas and to work in person makes me even more confident about the success of this exciting project!
