Content and Objectives

While the Generation and Gender Programme and the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) are comparative panel studies for adults in the European context, there is currently a lack of panel data for children that can be analysed comparatively across Europe. This is where the EU-wide GUIDE project comes in. GUIDE is intended to be the first European comparative birth cohort study on the well-being of children and adolescents in Europe. The aim of the GUIDE study is to track the personal well-being and development of children with key indicators from home, neighbourhood and school across Europe. The Growing Up in Digital Europe Preparatory Phase (GUIDEPREP) project is developing the research infrastructure needed to conduct the EU birth cohort study. Once the preparatory phase is completed, GUIDE will collect data from children growing up in Europe who will be 24 or 30 years old in 2053. GUIDE will be a cohort survey comprising both a sample of young children and a sample of school-age children. Each member state will provide nationally representative samples - the intention is to harmonise the data ex ante. In order to fully realise the GUIDE pilot study in 2026 and the first wave in 2027, the new research infrastructure must be set up administratively, technologically, financially, scientifically and legally. This is the subject of GUIDEPREP.