CA22111 - A European consortium to determine how complex, real-world environments influence brain development (ENVIRO-DEV)

The early years of brain development are critically influential for life-long outcomes. During early childhood, neurodevelopmental conditions emerge and vulnerabilities for longer-term problems are sown. Homes, schools and neighbourhoods shape children’s life chances, interacting with individual differences in cognition and behaviour to determine access to resources and quality of life. However, because almost all current research measures behaviour and brain function by taking children away from these natural environments into controlled lab settings, our knowledge of how early life settings shape development is surprisingly limited. We understand very little about the mechanisms through which specific environmental features impact development (e.g. the effects of variation in noise, clutter, social interaction etc); how these vary across European nations; and how they interact with neurodiverse learning styles. This limits us from designing personalised practical interventions to tailor early environments for different individuals. Under this COST Action we shall create the infrastructure and networks to allow for transformative new approaches to quantifying variability in the early life physical and social environments experienced by children across the EU. We will bring together currently siloed areas of expertise across Europe in new methods for studying children in their natural habitats; new perspectives on cultural and neurodiversity; and new ethical and legal frameworks to support large-scale collaborative developmental science. Our network will be a partnership across European nations and with neurodiverse communities to enable our work to be underpinned by co-creation, ensuring we are harnessing state-of-the-art research efforts to generate meaningful and impactful real- world outcomes.