Your questions answered

Generation New Era is a groundbreaking scientific study of over 30,000 babies born in 2026, and their families.  

The study will provide vital new insights into children's health and development and help improve the lives of children and families in the UK.  

Birth cohort studies follow children from birth throughout their lives. They show how children grow and develop, and how childhood experiences affect later lives. The UK is a world leader in this kind of research, with national studies of people born 1946, 1958, 1970 and 2000 still running today. 

These kinds of studies have been vital for providing evidence to change policy and services for children and families in the UK. Several government measures benefiting parents today have been informed by findings from similar studies. For example, extending maternity leave to one year, increasing the weekly rate of statutory maternity pay, and introducing two weeks of paid paternity leave.

You can read more examples on our Making a difference page, or hear about why others like taking part in our Participant stories.

The Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), at University College London (UCL), is in charge of the study. CLS is the UK’s leading cohort studies research centre. They were chosen to run the study because they are experts in this kind of research. UCL is one of the world’s leading universities.

The study team also includes Swansea University in Wales, the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and Ulster University in Northern Ireland.

The interviews with families will be carried out by three independent research organisations: Ipsos, Natcen and Verian. All interviewers have to follow the rules of the Market Research Society Code of Conduct. 

Generation New Era is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the UK’s leading academic funder of social research and part of UK Research and Innovation.  

The information will be used for research purposes only. Your survey responses will be put together with the answers from all the other people who are interviewed and made securely available for research via the UCL Data Safe Haven, UK Data Service and other secure research environments. 

Sometimes this may include commercial organisations using the data for approved research purposes. This research data will not contain any names, addresses, or other personal details that could directly identify individuals in the study. 

Your study information will be treated in strict confidence and kept securely. It will be used in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and will be retained until no longer required by the study. Generation New Era has strict security rules and secure systems to protect your information.

The data controller for the study is University College London (UCL). A data controller is the organisation that determines for what reason and how personal data is processed. UCL’s legal basis for using your information is for ‘a task in the public interest’ under the General Data Protection Regulation.  

More information about privacy, confidentiality, legal rights and responsibilities, is available on the looking after your information section of this website, including the study’s privacy notice. If you are concerned about how your personal data is processed for the study you can contact the UCL Data Protection Office via email: data-protection@ucl.ac.uk or the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Find more information on the ICO website.

The information you give will be kept entirely confidential from other members of your family and from organisations who provide services or administer benefits that you or your baby may use or receive.

In very exceptional circumstances your confidentiality may be broken, for example, if something you tell us indicates that someone is at significant risk of harm. More information about privacy and confidentiality is available on the looking after your information page. 

Families will be chosen to reflect the diversity within each region and country, and across the UK as a whole. Families will be chosen at random from records of births held by government departments and agencies. Approval by special committees in each country is needed before these organisations are allowed to share the names, addresses and additional information about parents and their babies with the study.

For the study findings to benefit all kinds of families, we need to hear from many different families, in all nations and regions of the UK. By including families from all backgrounds and cultures, and all kinds of children, we can build a full picture of the lives of this generation and give everyone a chance to be heard.

Unfortunately, families are not able to nominate themselves for the study. This is so we can make sure we have the right balance of different families taking part and that the study represents the population as a whole. Instead, we will write to each family individually to invite them to join the study. Each family chosen for the study is unique and cannot be replaced by anyone else.

The study has received UK-wide approval from an NHS Research Ethics Committee. Approval by special committees in each country is also needed to allow government departments and agencies to provide Generation New Era with families’ contact details and additional information from records of births.

In England and Wales, this was approved by NHS England and the NHS Health Research Authority’s Confidentiality Advisory Group. NHS England will provide the information about families so they can be invited to take part.

In Scotland, this was approved by the Health and Social Care Public Benefit and Privacy Panel. Public Health Scotland will provide the information about families.

In Northern Ireland, this was approved by Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts. The HSC Business Services Organisation will provide the information about families.

You can find out more about this on the Looking after your information pages.

  

We will invite one parent, usually whoever spends the most time with the baby, to complete an interview, usually done in person with an interviewer. 

We will ask the other parent to complete a separate shorter interview. This interview is shorter as we only need to ask some questions once per baby or household. These interviews will be done online, in person and sometimes by telephone.

We don’t only want to interview mums! It’s just as important that we hear from dads. This is so we get a full picture of the babies’ lives and can learn about fathers’ experiences of parenthood too. We’d like interview all parents, whether or not they are living with their baby all the time.

There are some questions which need to be answered by both parents to get a more complete picture of your and your child’s life. This includes details about yourself and your relationship with your child.  Other questions only need to be asked once per family.

We always need one parent to complete the longer interview, and we suggest that this is done by the parent who spends most time with the baby. If you and your child’s other parent live separately, we will ask the parent who lives in the child’s main household to complete the longer interview.

We will ask you about your baby’s health and growth, behaviour and development, sleep, diet and the activities you do with your baby. There will also be questions about your experiences as a mother or father as well as other aspects of your life and about your family.  

You will also have the option to download a free smartphone app designed to help parents capture their child’s learning and development, keep memories of their child growing up, and help scientists study child development at the same time.