On Wednesday, May 21, 2025, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) will launch the Child Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary initiative led by Professor Els Dumortier. The project focuses on developing scientific practices in which children and young people are engaged as full citizens and co-researchers.
The Child Citizen Lab aims to become a centre of expertise for co-creative, ethical, and inclusive research with children and young people. The Lab brings together researchers from various disciplines around a shared goal: the development and implementation of ethical guidelines, methodologies, and best practices for conducting research with, rather than about, children.
Children and young people are still too often excluded from meaningful participation in research and policymaking, despite their direct involvement in today's societal challenges. The Child Citizen Lab is based on the conviction that children have the right to a voice and shared responsibility, including within academia.
A striking example is how young people in Belgium and elsewhere were criminalized during the climate marches, while they are the very ones — according to recent studies such as those by Save the Children — who will bear the brunt of climate change (Will you lead an unprecedented life? | Vrije Universiteit Brussel). Children who are five years old today will, on average, experience seven times more extreme heatwaves than their grandparents. Yet their voices are rarely considered in climate policy.
The Child Citizen Lab seeks to address this fundamental imbalance in knowledge production by systematically involving children and young people in formulating research questions, collecting data, and interpreting results. By recognizing them as active citizens, science can become more responsive, representative, and socially relevant.
The Lab also aims to have a structural impact on academia: by providing a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration, it will develop and apply guidelines and models that support researchers in the ethical and effective involvement of young people in their work.