• The story so far
• Key findings
• Ethics
  • Changing Your Mind
  • Feedback of Results
  • Funding
• Playing your part
• Young Participants
• Mothers
• Fathers
• COCO90s
• Brothers and Sisters
• Position statements
• Glossary
• Contact us

Ethics

Children of the 90s is run at the University of Bristol by expert scientists; it works to help society, not for commercial interests. It was started by Professor Jean Golding and is now run by Professor George Davey Smith.

Leading researchers from all over the world use the information our participants give us to study the causes of the most important health and social problems facing the world today. Understanding the roots of these problems will help us to prevent them in future generations.

Researchers who want to use information collected by Children of the 90s must prove that their projects meet the highest scientific and ethical standards. Their requests are assessed by independent experts.

Many people help us make sure Children of the 90s make the right decisions:

• The Children of the 90s Executive; a group of senior researchers and managers from Children of the 90s.
• The Children of the 90s Ethics & Law Committee; a group of experts, study young people and parents who are there to protect your interests.
• All research to do with the NHS is looked at by independent committees who are there to protect your safety, rights, well-being and dignity.

Our commitment to you

• Taking part in the project is voluntary and you are free to withdraw at any time without giving a reason.
• You will not be identified from the research - researchers do not see your name with your information – they just see your barcode ID number.
• Every research project is checked to make sure it meets the highest scientific and ethical standards.
• In the same way as a doctor who treats you is bound to keep your information confidential, Children of the 90s, and all the researchers we work with, are bound to keep your information confidential.
• There are independent experts whose job it is to look at what we do and how we do it to make sure your rights are protected.
• We do not do commercial research – all our research aims to benefit society and is not for profit. We are funded by the University of Bristol, charities including the Wellcome Trust and the British Heart Foundation and also the Medical Research Council. 

 

Professor George Davey Smith, Scientific Director, Children of the 90s

 

Further information

• Changing your mind - more information if you have changed your mind about how you take part in Children of the 90s.
• Feedback of results - why only certain results can be fed back to you.
• Funding - a list of organisations that fund Children of the 90s.