Information about children born in the Isle of Man as part of an academic study is being transferred.
The study collected details such as IQ, weight and diet, as well as blood samples.
These pieces of information are now being assessed as part of a project in Bristol.
The European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC) was designed and co-ordinated by Prof Jean Golding at the University of Bristol.
The plan was to undertake similar studies in various European countries with the broad aim to determine which environmental, social, psychological, biological and genetic factors are associated with the survival, health and well-being of the foetus, infant, child and adult.
Ultimately, Russia, Greece, Majorca, the Czech and Slovak republics, five centres in the Ukraine, Avon and the Isle of Man went into the field.
The Isle of Man study had an exceptional response rate. It was organised and directed by Dr Stephanie Goodfellow with Edna Rolfe.
More than 1,300 Manx families took part and, along with Avon, Czech Republic and Ukraine also undertook a seven-year clinic; Isle of Man, Avon and Czech Republic followed up the children to the age of 15. Only Avon and the Isle of Man collected biological samples.
Both Dr Goodfellow and Mrs Rolfe have now retired, and the study data and administrative files were in long-term storage partly on the island and partly at the University of Liverpool.
There was a risk that all the material would be lost.
A legal transfer of the data, biological samples and files to the University of Bristol was arranged in 2014.
The biological samples are stored within ELSPAC’s laboratories in Bristol. An Isle of Man Data Governance Committee (members include Jean Golding, Alan Emond and an Isle of Man study participant, Barbara Corlett) was convened to write grant proposals; promote use of the data; and act as custodians for the data.
Access is granted to bona fide researchers, although much of the data still requires cleaning and editing.
A statement from Jean Golding, emeritus professor of paediatric and perinatal epidemiology, and Professor Alan Emond, professor of community child health at the University of Bristol, reads: ‘We want to inform all the participant families of this move of their data to the custodianship of the University of Bristol and to assure them that all their hard work was worthwhile.’