By 2002, the possibility of linking data collected in childhood to future cardiovascular disease (CVD) events was becoming a realistic focus in several of these cohorts. The idea of pooling data arose. Initially the Young Finns, CDAH, Bogalusa, and Muscatine studies were approached to participate in a collaborative effort. Through the increased power this collaboration would provide, the follow-up period to ascertain sufficient early cardiovascular disease events could be reduced. Detailed examination revealed that all four studies had gathered similar lifestyle and biological risk factors in childhood, among them – blood pressure, serum lipids, smoking and adiposity measures.

In 2008-2009 researchers associated with each cohort agreed to proceed with establishing a formal consortium ultimately named: the International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort (i3C) Consortium.  As the capacity of the Consortium and the extent of its network developed, other similar studies were identified. These were the Princeton Lipid Research Clinics Study, three Minneapolis Childhood Cohort Studies, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study (NGHS).

Altogether more than 40,000 children were examined in the collaborating cohorts. Therefore, the i3C Consortium offers the potential to extend our knowledge about the childhood origin of adult cardiometabolic diseases and will focus on, but not be limited to, three key research areas: 1) Follow-up of CVD morbidity and mortality, 2) Genetic data collection and analyses, 3) Continued assessment of non-communicable disease outcomes (e.g., diabetes, cancer).