A 90-day campus pilot programme, not a single research session.
A 90-day campus pilot programme — not a single research session — built to make voting feel like an essential, personal democratic right to the youngest eligible (and soon-to-be-eligible) UK citizens, and to give the UB client-candidate a genuine, lasting connection to that young vote bank.
Delivered in partnership with a small number of select UK universities and, where a client requests it, sixth-form colleges reaching 16–17 year-olds who are not yet eligible to vote but are forming lifelong civic habits.
Three phases designed to build engagement, participation and accountability.
Foundation & Access
MOUs signed with 3–5 partner universities/colleges via students' unions and politics societies; a baseline survey of student political engagement, registration status and voting intention; recruitment and training of paid student "Democracy Fellows" as campus ambassadors; campus mapping of key touchpoints (fresher's fairs, common rooms, lecture halls, societies).
Engagement & Narrative Building
The client-candidate holds structured town halls and open Q&A sessions on campus; deliberative focus-group sessions (the Lab's research core) surface the issues that genuinely matter to that student body; a "voter narrative" is co-created with student input rather than written for them; a voter-registration drive runs alongside, with on-the-spot registration support; every session is filmed, feeding directly into The Digital Doorstep content pipeline.
Conversion, Turnout & Accountability
A GOTV push where there is a live registered election, or a structured "First Vote Pledge" campaign in non-election years; a final insight report on turnout and engagement, shared publicly with the university and the client; the client-candidate makes a public, written commitment to specific youth-relevant policy actions, logged into PIB's Promises Tracker — so the relationship built with students at 18 becomes a promise they are held to for the rest of the term.
One campus at a time. A standing multi-university relationship.
Each 90-day Lab is designed to be replicated at a new campus each cycle, so a single client can build a standing, multi-university youth relationship across a full electoral term, with the accountability link back into PIB reinforcing trust every year a student becomes newly eligible to vote.
Built for those seeking to reach first-time voters.
Any candidate or party unit trying to reach first-time voters; students' unions; youth wings of parties (Young Labour, Young Conservatives, Young Liberals, etc.).
Youth Democracy Labs
Helping political leaders meaningfully engage Britain's next generation through universities, research, dialogue and democratic participation.
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