The youth research platform (JOP) is an interdisciplinary and interuniversity partnership between the Department of Social Welfare Studies (UGent), the Leuvens Institute of Criminology (LINC) – research line Youth Criminology (K.U.Leuven) and the Tempus Omnia Revelat Research Group (TOR – Vrije Universiteit Brussel). This partnership was created in 2003 on the initiative of the Flemish Minister for Youth. The youth research platform aims at building a structural foundation for youth research through two main activities: (1) the construction of an accessible database for all youth research in Flanders and some relevant international youth research texts (see ‘4.1. Building knowledge through existing youth research’) and (2) the repeated gathering of empirical data about the conditions of children and youth (see ‘4.2. The Youth Monitor’). Furthermore, the international consolidation and validation of all activities of the research platform is considered a key activity of the JOP since 2010. In the period 2012-2016, JOP intends to continue and refine the existing activities.