Helping researchers get CLOSER to the facts of life

Some of the most important studies of people's lives in the UK, including the University of Bristol Children of the 90s study (ALSPAC) , will be brought together in a national centre of excellence thanks to a £5 million project launched this week by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) . The Cohorts and Longitudinal Studies Enhancement Resource (CLOSER) project will enable researchers make better use of the data from nine of the country's leading studies with participants born as early as 1911 and as recently as 2007. The UK is home to the largest and longest-running longitudinal studies in the world, this world-leading initiative will pay a vital role in maximising the use, value and impact of these studies both within the UK and abroad. Professor Jane Elliott from the Institute of Education in London will lead a team to establish the national centre of excellence across the nine longitudinal studies. ALSPAC will be represented by its executive director, Lynn Molloy and its head of laboratories, Sue Ring. Strengthening the links between these studies will allow researchers, policymakers and others to make much better use of the rich and detailed data on people's lives gathered over many years in the UK. Repeating the same longitudinal analysis across a number of studies allows researchers to test whether results are robust, and how they are changed by the context in which data has been collected.