Research on youth is becoming increasingly recognised as an indispensable companion of effective, impactful policy and practice. To make it more accessible and better understood, this short text, written by members of the Pool of European Youth Researchers, co-ordinated by the EU-Council of Europe youth partnership, aspires to help the reader gain a better and immediate understanding of the purpose, scope and usefulness of research on youth. It also describes how various stakeholders in the youth field, and beyond, can make use of youth research. It does not intend to present the state of contemporary youth research, nor showcase youth research projects, but focuses on addressing specific questions such as: What is youth research? What are the theoretical influences of youth research? Why do we need youth research?
It is the authors’ wish, through this publication, to make research on youth closer and more accessible to all actors in the youth field in Europe and beyond.