I'm very pleased to have had a small role in this project. The Open University's nQuire website is designed to make Citizen Science more accessible - and they've just teamed up with the Mental Health Foundation to explore the mental health provision available to young people in schools and universities.
Unlike similar surveys, the research questions have been designed in collaboration with young people themselves. As the MHF explain, the hope is that by involving students in planning such studies, they learn not only what issues are important to young people but also how they want to talk about them.
I know from talking to other citizen science enthusiasts that this collaborative approach to planning research can lead to great projects. Academics and professional researchers often ask particular kinds questions, so involving communities in studies like this can lead to questions being framed in very different ways. Hopefully we'll see lots more projects like this!
You can find out more about the project here.
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