[lookit-research] Children Helping Science - Our next steps, and how you can help keep the platform alive

[Melissa Kline]

(apologies to anyone receiving this email multiple times!)

*This email in short:*
- The new Children Helping Science organization!
- How you can help to keep the CHS platform available to the community
- A five minute survey
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfchA16vygo7VdBIX5uQ-ZykBtOH2CTqt3sQ5eER8mLw-AfQg/viewform?usp=preview>
for professors & heads of labs

For over six years, Children Helping Science has operated as a completely
free resource to the developmental research community, enabling over 250
labs to conduct studies from a database of over 17,000 families, and
producing a growing record of publications
<https://lookit.readthedocs.io/en/develop/publications.html>.

Today, we are happy to announce that CHS has officially created a footprint
outside of MIT, the first step toward establishing a long-term nonprofit
home. We will continue to work together with MIT as the scientific home of
CHS and institutional partner for sensitive data; this change is about
where CHS operates administratively and financially.

The reason for this change is that two things are simultaneously true:
First, CHS is rapidly growing, with new research teams joining the platform
every week. And second, we can’t continue operating without asking the
researchers who use the platform to start directly contributing to its
costs.

Given the massive shift in federal funding, we know we’ll need to work hard
to make CHS financially sustainable. Operating outside of MIT will
substantially reduce our costs and let us work more flexibly, and we have
bridge funding through early 2027. But we’ll need financial support from
both new funding partners and from labs writing CHS into their funding
proposals in order to keep operating into the future.

*CHS’s new cost structure*

- To keep CHS running, we need to put a dollar amount on how much using CHS
is worth, so that researchers who have (or are applying for) funding can
contribute directly to maintaining this shared resource.
- Thanks to current grant funding, CHS will be free to all researchers
until the end of 2026.
- Starting in 2027, recruiting participants and hosting studies on CHS will
require a lab license. License options will be available for both
individual studies and multi-study memberships. (See FAQ
<https://lookit.readthedocs.io/en/develop/pricing.html#what-are-the-license-options>
for more details.)

*Are there free or reduced price options for CHS in 2027?*

We understand that some labs are not in a position to write CHS into grant
applications, and we are actively fundraising to help these labs in 2027.
In addition, we have options that can help you extend resources such as
partial-year memberships and credits for the new participants that you
bring to CHS.  We are committed to working with each team to make sure the
whole research community can continue to use CHS for a long time into the
future. If you’re concerned about your ability to afford CHS’s new pricing
model, please reach out.

The goal of asking labs to contribute is to ensure CHS can continue to be a
resource to as many researchers as possible in the future. With many large
funders pulling back, it is possible that CHS could have to wind down
services for all researchers if we don’t develop a more sustainable model.

*What we need right now:*

- Starting today, *please include funding for the CHS platform in all of
your grant applications that propose to use it*. Our standard pricing will
range from $1,604 for a single external study ad to $10,206 per year for an
active lab hosting multiple studies on the platform. There is no need for
subaward or contractor paperwork - you can include this as a line item in
your budget just as you would do for other recruitment or data collection
costs.

- Within the next two weeks (by July 24), lab heads are asked to please *fill
out this five-minute survey
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfchA16vygo7VdBIX5uQ-ZykBtOH2CTqt3sQ5eER8mLw-AfQg/viewform?usp=preview>*.
This will help us understand your needs, find opportunities for group
fundraising, and begin planning for the future of CHS. Graduate students,
postdocs, and others, we’d deeply appreciate your help making sure PIs see
this!

Details and FAQ about the timeline, pricing models, and additional options
are available at this page
<https://lookit.readthedocs.io/en/develop/pricing.html#>, and I am
available for 1-1 meetings to discuss any aspect of this - please feel free
to send me an email at melissa at childrenhelpingscience.org.

Thank you so much for reading, and for your continuing support of Children
Helping Science,

- Melissa

-- 
Melissa Kline Struhl
Executive Director, Children Helping Science
Research Scientist, MIT Brain & Cognitive Sciences
mekline at mit.edu
https://childrenhelpingscience.com/
http://www.melissaklinestruhl.com/ <https://www.melissaklinestruhl.com/>
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