Participant Information

Invitation to participate

This study is called the Big Toilet Project and has been approved by UCL Research and Ethics Committee (0364). It is an international research project about opinions and behaviours towards child toilet training. The study comprises a short online survey about opinions and behaviours towards child toilet training, and an optional Toilet Training Diary to share current toilet training experiences. It is part of a UCL project called the ‘Comfort Loop: A systems approach for sustainable absorbent hygiene products’, which is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) - a non-departmental public body sponsored by the UK Government. It is led by Professor Mark Miodownik, UCL Professor of Materials and Society. The study comprises a short online survey about opinions and behaviours towards child toilet training, and an optional Toilet Training Diary to share current toilet training experiences. The study will continue until September 2026.

Project aims

This study is for parents/adults responsible for making decisions about child toilet training, who currently carry out toilet training or are ready to start toilet training (participant age 18+). By taking part in this study, you will help identify key behavioural and environmental issues impacting child toilet training internationally. The information you share with us will feed into our open access reports and Blog. With your consent we will keep you up-to-date with the study as it develops. Alternatively you can choose not to be contacted again.  

Taking part  

Your participation is entirely voluntary and confidential. Before submitting any personal information to us via the website, you will be notified and given the option to consent. The first part of the study is a short survey which takes approximately 5 minutes to complete. We would like to know your opinions and behaviours towards child toilet training. You will be given the option to take part via a ‘Start the survey’ button. Consent to submit information will be sought via a consent tick box and submit button. The second part of the study is an optional Toilet Training Diary to share current experiences of child toilet training. This requires you to create a diary account, which gives you an opportunity to add monthly events and notes, to track your child’s progress. A diary entry only takes a couple of minutes. The diary can be started from up to a year in the past and must be completed by September 2026. For further information see our Toilet Training Guidelines. You will be given the option to create a Toilet Training Diary account via a 'Start a Toilet Training Diary’ button on the Take Part page. Consent to submit information will be sought via a consent tick box and submit button.  

Data protection and privacy notice

The controller for this project will be University College London (UCL). The UCL Data Protection Officer provides oversight of UCL activities involving the processing of personal data. This ‘local’ privacy notice sets out the information that applies to this particular study. Further information on how UCL uses participant information can be found in our ‘general’ privacy notice which can be accessed here. 

The information that is required to be provided to participants under data protection legislation (GDPR and DPA 2018) is provided across both the ‘local’ and ‘general’ privacy notices. 

The lawful basis that will be used to process your personal data is: ‘public task’ and ‘research purposes’ will be the lawful basis for processing special category data. 

Your personal data will be processed so long as it is required for the research project. If we are able to anonymise or pseudonymise the personal data you provide we will undertake this. We will endeavour to minimise the processing of personal data wherever possible. Data will be anonymised before any publication and at the end of the study. 

If you are concerned about how your personal data is being processed, or if you would like to contact us about your rights, please contact UCL in the first instance at data-protection@ucl.ac.uk 

Withdrawal from the study  

Participants have the option to withdraw from the study and remove their personal data and/or contact email from our mailing list at anytime before September 2026. Please send your request to research@instituteofmaking.org.uk  

What will happen to the results?

The results of this project will be shared with policymakers and manufacturers, as well as other interest groups concerned with absorbent hygiene product use (i.e. nappies/diapers). Your responses will be anonymised, so you will not be personally identifiable in any presentations, reports, or publications. At the end of the project anonymised data will be archived for future research use. We would also like to keep you updated about the progress of the study, which we will do through our Big Toilet Project optional mailing list and UCL’s Plastic Waste Innovation Hub homepage. A summary of the latest results will be shared annually.  

Health and safety  

Toilet training activities are carried out at your own personal risk. Participants must be must be aged 18+ and either parents or adults responsible for childcare. 

Further questions  

If you have any other questions, please contact the research team at research@instituteofmaking.org.uk  

Concerns or complaints?  

If you have any concerns or complaints about this study, please contact the research team at research@instituteofmaking.org.uk, or the Chair of UCL’s Research Ethics Committee at ethics@ucl.ac.uk  

Further information  

The Big Toilet Project was designed by the UCL Plastic Waste Innovation Hub. The website was developed by Ten4. It is part of a UKRI/EPSRC funded project at UCL called ‘Comfort Loop: A systems approach for sustainable absorbent hygiene products’. The UCL Plastic Waste Innovation Hub is a multidisciplinary team of experts from across UCL who are devising and testing new interventions to eliminate material waste.