20 Jan Young people are crucial to research — how can they be paid fairly?

By Nicole Anne D’souza, E. Kay M. Tisdall, Silvia Maria Battaglia & Mónica Ruiz-Casares, nature

Young people have become increasingly involved in research in recent years — whether in relation to social and environmental issues, health and well-being, education, economic development or policy and advocacy. Several major funders, such as the US National Institutes of Health, UK Research and Innovation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, have focused on adolescent health in their calls for research, for instance.

Added to this, young people — defined for these purposes as individuals aged between 12 and 24 — are more often acting as advisers or co-researchers on projects, not just as research participants¹. Indeed, among governmental and non-governmental organizations, foundations and international funders, support has been growing for an approach known as youth-led participatory action research, which strives to shift the conventional balance of power². In such projects, instead of adults instructing young people, young people identify the research questions and collect and analyse data themselves. Read more…