Professor Alissa Goodman to step aside as Director of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies

Professor Alissa Goodman has announced she will be passing on the baton as Director of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) later this year, after more than a decade of leadership.

Reflecting on her tenure, Professor Goodman said: “It has been a huge privilege for me to lead CLS and to work with such wonderful colleagues and collaborators over these last 10 years.

“During this time the CLS studies have continued to go from strength to strength, providing vital insights into the lives of people across generations.”

A world-leading centre

Since Professor Goodman became director in 2014 (at first in interim, and then formally from 2015) CLS has grown considerably, developing its presence as a world-leading centre for longitudinal research as well as delivering the CLS cohorts as a major component of the UK’s social science infrastructure.

Over the past decade, CLS has undertaken major data collections in all of its cohorts. The centre has expanded the scientific scope of its studies, including through integrated biomedical and social data collections, the addition of new genomic data, administrative and geo-data linkages, and harmonised data across studies in key scientific domains.

Both through its own leadership and collaborations, CLS has expanded the number of cohorts in its portfolio.  Having initially added the Next Steps study alongside the 1958, 1970 and Millennium cohorts, the centre has also developed a close strategic partnership with the scientific team at UCL that runs the UK’s oldest cohort, the 1946 National Study of Health and Development (NSHD), bringing together all of the UK’s unique series of national birth cohort studies under one roof at UCL.

CLS has also taken on a series of collaborations on studies of new generations of children, including Children of the 2020s,  Growing up in the 2020s, and the COSMO study. Having led the Early Life Cohort Feasibility Study together with a UK-wide team, CLS has recently been invited by the ESRC to bid for the leadership of a major new UK birth cohort study of 30,000 babies to be born in 2026, which will provide vital evidence on the lives and wellbeing of a new generation of children.

A huge contribution

The CLS cohorts have made a huge contribution to scientific discussion and debate since 2015. Thousands of researchers have accessed cohort study data. There are now over 6,000 publications based on CLS’s studies, and almost half of these have been published since 2015.  These have been authored by researchers in more than 100 countries and 500 institutions, generating nearly 25,000 citations between 2018 and 2023 alone.

They are also shaping public policy and helping to improve people’s lives: in the same five-year period, research using CLS data was cited in almost 800 policy documents, including UK parliamentary reports, government strategies, and publications from international organisations such as the WHO, World Bank and UN.

This scientific evidence has directly influenced policy across diverse domains including government strategies on childhood obesity, mental health, bullying, access to higher education, smoking reduction, early childhood development, breastfeeding, health inequalities, social mobility, adult skills, and domestic violence.

A proud decade

After stepping aside, Professor Goodman will continue as a Professor of Economics within the centre, and will retain her role as Co-Director of Population Research UK. She will also be a Co-Director of the new UK Early Life Cohort birth cohort study, if it is commissioned by ESRC.

“Over the past decade, I have been really proud to help oversee the development of these remarkable studies, which continue to address important questions about society and are vital data resources.”

Professor Goodman

Professor Goodman added: “I started working with the CLS cohorts early in my career and I’ve never lost my initial wonder at the way they illuminate how people’s lives unfold. Over the past decade, I have been really proud to help oversee the development of these remarkable studies, which continue to address important questions about society and are vital data resources for researchers, policymakers and practitioners alike.

“I look forward to seeing CLS and its cohort studies continue to thrive in the years ahead.”

The UCL Institute of Education has begun the process of recruiting a new Director. The advertisement is now closed.

[Page updated: Wednesday, 3 September 2025]

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