Atlas of Longitudinal Datasets launches

Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London have launched a new free platform to allow people to discover hundreds of longitudinal mental health datasets, in partnership with Wellcome, MQ Mental Health Research and lived experience experts.

The new Atlas of Longitudinal Datasets allows researchers, governments, funders and members of the public to explore over 1,600 datasets using a designated search engine. The platform includes features to visualise data sources on a map, compare multiple datasets, and apply filters to identify datasets most relevant to specific research questions.

It has potential to improve our understanding of mental health by:

• Making it easy for researchers to discover longitudinal datasets from across the world to help answer questions about mental health
• Allowing funders to identify gaps in research to guide resource allocation
• Informing evidence-based policy development and public health monitoring
• Making existing datasets more visible to promote collaboration and reduce duplication of research

In total, more than one billion participants are represented across all 1,600 datasets. Datasets are from 186 countries across six continents, and around 25 per cent of them include at least one low- and middle-income country.

The platform contains information about sample size, participant demographics, data sharing policies, type of data collected, mental health topics studied, and lived experience expert involvement. Researchers are continuing to add new datasets to the platform.

Professor Louise Arseneault, Principal Investigator and Professor of Developmental Psychology at King’s IoPPN, said:

“We are thrilled to launch the new Atlas of Longitudinal Datasets. Longitudinal research holds so much potential for advancing our understanding of the development, progression and treatment of mental health conditions. By bringing together these datasets into one centralised platform, we hope the Atlas will become a widely used tool for researchers, funders and policymakers, enabling them to discover and utilise this critical data.”

The Atlas was launched at Wellcome on 22 January 2025. Principal Investigator, Professor Louise Arseneault shared the journey of building the Atlas and its applications in research, followed by a live demonstration by Dr Bridget Bryan, Research Associate at the IoPPN. The event concluded with panel discussion with researchers and lived experience experts.