In 1994 the Alliance identified young people as a priority target group in it's education work. It also decided to explore the possibility of expanding it's remit from AIDS to sexual health. This arose from on-the-ground evidence from Alliance workers that the information and educational needs of young people were not being met, and that their concerns encompassed a wide range of issues, with AIDS being just one. Against this background, the Alliance secured EU funding for a research project which sought to explore young people's knowledge, attitudes and practises.

The project was undertaken with three aims in mind. These were to gather descriptive data on the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of young people in Cork City in the areas of relationships, sexuality, alcohol and drug use; to assess current AIDS and sex education programmes in use in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Berlin; and to make recommendations for sex education policies and programmes for use in Cork City and elsewhere in Ireland.

The sample population consisted of 800 young people between the ages of 15 and 24 and living in Cork City. Self-administered, along with focus group discussions. The research team also visited a range of sex education projects in Berlin, Amsterdam and Utrecht.