ActEarly: new citizen science project in Tower Hamlets

Tower Hamlets Council and the UCL Citizen Science Academy are joining forces to train local residents to become social scientists in their own neighbourhoods.  

Around 10 residents will be employed part-time while they are trained and supported to design their own research connected to ActEarly - a major prevention research programme that aims to improve the life chances of children by focusing on improving the environments that influence their health. Research will also be developed in direct connection with Council teams, ensuring the production of useful knowledge to inform policymaking in the east London borough. 

Communities involved in ActEarly are keen to have a more central role in research – identifying local priorities, setting research questions, and carrying out research and analysis. This project will explore how citizen science can bring new insights about lived experiences and concerns of local communities to ActEarly themes, and the Council’s new Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC). It will also demonstrate a more bottom-up implementation of the ActEarly Co-Production strategy.  

The programme is currently being co-designed with a range of local stakeholders, with recruitment of this new cohort of citizen scientists taking place in later Summer 2024.