Members’ Directory
Our current members span a wide variety of disciplines and locations accross the UK. A list of Centres, Institutes and Networks represented in the UKAgeNet membership can be found below. Links, detailed organisational summaries and contact details are coming soon.
Centre for Research on Ageing and Generations (CRAG)
The Centre for Research on Ageing and Generations (CRAG) examines these important aspects of human experience from a life course perspective, paying attention to change over time and in relation to different social, economic, political and cultural conditions. CRAG brings together researchers from across the University of Surrey who are interested in questions of: human ageing and generations; intergenerational exchanges, practices and relations; and cross-generational solidarity and differences.
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The main research themes are around 'Families and the life course, 'Socio-historical cohort generations', 'ageing, 'relative and absolute social mobility', 'creating inclusive residential care of LGBTQ+ Elders' and 'Intergenerational Exchanges in LGBTQ+ communities'.
Healthy Lifespan Institute (HELSI)
The Healthy Lifespan Institute is transforming the experience of ageing. We’re the UK’s first interdisciplinary research institute dedicated to understanding and preventing multimorbidity and frailty - to help everyone live healthier lives for longer.
From the moment we are conceived there are factors that influence how we age. These include the social and economic environments we live and work in, as well as our individual biology and behaviour. Our rate of ageing predicts our health span, i.e. the number of years we can expect to live an independent, healthy life. The slower our rate of ageing, the more resilient we are to multimorbidity, the presence of two or more chronic health conditions, which leads to frailty, and low quality of life in later years.
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At the Healthy Lifespan Institute, we are developing interventions across the lifecourse that slow down the rate of ageing to increase resilience to age related-disease.
The Healthy Lifespan Institute brings together over 180 world-class researchers from across 30 departments and schools and 5 faculties including Medicine & Dentistry, Arts & Humanities, Science, Engineering and Social Science.
Our expertise is wide-ranging, from age-related diseases and the underlying mechanisms of ageing to social policy and practice. Our mission is to apply this expertise to design and test interventions throughout the life course to help everyone live healthier independent lives for longer.
Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre
The AWRC is a leading centre for physical activity research and innovation. We bring together multiple academic disciplines such as sports engineering, health, robotics, computing, sport science, psychology, design, and the arts; creating collaborations with industry, local communities, local authorities, charities and the health and technology sectors.
Our mission is to transform lives through innovations that help people move. This is at the heart of everything we do and reflects a belief that physical activity, in its many forms, has significant benefits for individuals, communities, the economy and wider society. Harnessing the power of human movement through our research, innovation and knowledge exchange is the space occupied by the AWRC. We exist to transform lives.
CEDAR: Centre for Environment, Dementia and Ageing Research
The Centre for Environment, Dementia and Ageing Research (CEDAR) conducts multidisciplinary research focused on social, built, natural and care environments for older people and people living with dementia.
Research produced by CEDAR has a strong applied emphasis, older people are front and centre in all our projects, and CEDAR’s research advances our conceptual understanding of ageing and dementia in society.
Research is commonly co-produced with research beneficiaries, and group members continue to innovate in working with vulnerable research participants, for example through arts-based methods.
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Recent major projects have explored:
the meaning and experience of localities for older people
the design of living and socialising environments for people with dementia
technological and material aspects of ageing
the experiences of older people in hospitals and at the end of life.
UK DRI Care Research & Technology
With an ageing population, limited resources for home care and no immediate cures available, developing new ways to help people live well with dementia is a priority. All too often people living with dementia are isolated and develop preventable problems that lead to unnecessary hospital admissions.
The UK DRI Care Research & Technology centre, based at Imperial with close collaboration with the University of Surrey and the Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SABP), brings together a diverse team of doctors, engineers and scientists who together can harness recent advances in artificial intelligence, engineering, robotics and sleep science to create new technologies that will deliver the highest quality dementia care in the home. Researchers are investigating new ways to keep people independent in their homes, improve their general health and sleep, and reduce confusion and agitation. Their work is guided by people with dementia and their caregivers, focusing on issues that cause the most problems.
Olivia Marshall
UK Dementia Research Institute
UK DRI Public Affairs Manager, University College London
UK Dementia Research Institute
New scientific discoveries, new hope to stop dementia
We do original, groundbreaking research that will transform lives. We attract the brightest minds and give them the best technology and research tools. We work with each other, with people living with dementia and their families, with the wider scientific community and with industry to translate our findings into treatments. We are renowned for the quality of our science, our willingness to share data, ideas and resources, and our unwavering commitment to stop dementia in its tracks.
ECMage
The ECMage network focuses on the ageing of extracellular matrix (ECM), a major structural & functional determinant of tissue resilience with remarkable tissue specificity. Our tissues comprise of cells and >1000 ECM proteins. The ECM facilitates cell-matrix and cell-cell communication, and exchange of nutrients and growth factors. The ECM undergoes structural changes with age, leading to accumulation of fragmented, cross-linked ECM proteins and loss of ECM ligands. Alterations to ECM underpin many age-related tissue changes, such as loss of elasticity, poor healing, scarring, abnormal growths and entry into senescence, a hallmark of ageing. Remarkably, ECM is a target of daily changes governed by our ~24h (circadian) time-keeping mechanisms, highlighting ECM as a malleable driver of tissue ageing. However, there is a critical need to understand how ageing alters the ECM of specific organ/tissue systems, how age-associated ECM impacts tissue-specific deterioration and the roles of specific cell sub-types involved.
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The ECMage network brings together complementary expertise in key aspects of ageing, matrix biology, chronobiology, AI/computational modelling and tissue engineering across UK to develop novel models to study ECM ageing, particularly 3D biological models, new biomaterials to mimic tissue-specific ECM and in silico models to predict novel anti-ageing therapies. Working together, sharing models, technologies, knowledge and expertise, we will strategically address challenges in ageing research with a view to generate paradigm-shifting discoveries with long-term benefit of improving lives and outcomes for older people.
Design Age Institute
Designing for Age, Agency & Joy.
Design Age Institute is the UK’s national strategic unit for design and the healthy ageing economy. We bring together designers, businesses, researchers and communities to help address the challenges and opportunities of an ageing society. Design Age Institute is perfectly placed to use design led innovation to bridge the gap between people’s needs as they age and the development of desirable and commercially viable products and services that increase demand and enable happier ageing.
Through the transformative power of design, we aim to help everyone age happier and healthier.
Queen’s on Ageing Research Network
Queen's on Ageing brings together scholarship and research activity from Queen’s University about the issues around ageing in order to build further connections and increase the impact of our work.
We are a research network which allows researchers to come together to pool their expertise across all three Faculties of the university. The network provides a space for researchers to develop Queen’s outstanding reputation for research on ageing in medical, social, cultural and allied disciplines.
We provide support and encouragement to researchers of ageing at all levels from postgraduate students to senior professors. We work across disciplines, sharing a commitment to supporting and advocating for older people as service users, citizens and full members of our society.
Beth Johnson Foundation
The Beth Johnson Foundation is a local charity with national influence. We are dedicated to improving later life within our local community and to helping make the UK age friendly.
At the Beth Johnson Foundation, we want everyone to enjoy a great later life. By listening to, learning from, and sharing people’s stories of ageing, we can work together to help build a future for all ages. We share the voices of older people and push for positive changes in our communities.
Institute of Gerontology
We investigate the challenges of health and social care, as well as the social, economic and policy consequences of ageing populations in both developed and developing worlds.
Founded in 1986, our Institute leads excellent research and teaching in critical areas for ageing societies and older people, including healthy ageing, long-term care, employment, social participation, age-friendly cities, grandparents, housing and social policy.
Louise Lafortune
Cambridge Public Health Interdisciplinary Centre
Lead, Life Course and Ageing theme
Cambridge Public Health Interdisciplinary Centre
Cambridge Public Health is an interdisciplinary Research Centre. We aim to build
connections between researchers, foster collaborations with health professionals working
outside of academia and conduct research that improves the health and wellbeing of
populations.
Our Life Course and Ageing theme explores the rapid ageing of populations around the
world. People are living longer than ever before with huge benefits for families, communities
and societies. There are also widespread challenges with ageing populations, including health
conditions (such as dementia and heart disease), health inequalities, and changing housing,
transport and social needs.
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Research Projects:
Age-friendly environments: Since the World Health Organization launched its Age-Friendly
Cities initiative in 2006 a series of programmes designed to create age-friendly environments
has ensued, alongside a need for robust evaluation frameworks.
Rehousing programmes for older social housing tenants in Hackney: how well do they work?
The ‘oldest old’ towards the end of life: this project combines qualitative and quantitative
methods to examine end-of-life care issues from the perspective of very old people and their
carers.
ComPHAD (Community and Public Health Approaches to Dementia Research): Developing
a sustainable platform to understand the primary care, public health and social care needs for
dementia, centred on poorly represented communities.
Maximising informal volunteering as a community resource to support the mental health and
wellbeing of adults across the life course.
Ageing Research at King's (ARK)
Ageing Research at King’s (ARK) is a cross-faculty multidisciplinary consortium which brings together scholarship, research, innovation and entrepreneurship in ageing across the life course in several complementary fields. ARK is a leading industry-academic R&D hub for personalised and preventive diagnostics, prognostics and therapeutics, and represents King’s world class excellence for research on the biology of ageing, from the basic mechanisms in biogerontology to clinical translation and the social impact of ageing to better inform global policy makers.
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Research Themes:
Ageing, Resilience and Society; focuses on broad topics ranging from the social and economic factors associated with the ageing through to the psychological, biomedical and global aspects of ageing demographics.
Clinical Research and Practice; ARK undertakes clinical research in the treatment and care of individuals with age-related diseases, including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Mechanisms of Biological Ageing; Multidisciplinary basic and clinical research environment to elucidate the mechanisms of age-related conditions such as dementia, cardiovascular disease, inflammation and frailty.
Care of the Elderly; focuses on social and clinical research on living well with frailty, dementia communication and improving care experiences in older people.
Healthy Brain Ageing; focuses on the ageing brain and associated mental health. Research includes the molecular mechanisms and discovery of novel therapies for neurodegeneration, maintenance of mental wellness, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, depression, psychoses, sleep, neuroimaging and digital health informatics.
Oral Health; a broad portfolio oral health research directed towards ageing populations, from basic science, through to transnational research, public health and social & behavioral sciences.
AI in Ageing Research and Healthy Longevity; Machine learning is used to develop longevity and ageing predictors offer new possibilities for diverse data types. This will enable a holistic view aiming to identify novel longevity and healthy ageing biomarkers, accelerate diagnosis of age-related diseases, refine demographic and clinical methods, develop personalised interventions to promote lifestyles for healthy longevity.
Industry Engagement; focus on research in personal care, human biology, microbiology and healthy ageing.
Longevity Policy and Governance; The Policy Institute at King's provides evidence and expertise to inform global policy and practice in healthy ageing.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
We aim to improve care for people with mental health problems by generating new insights and new evidence-based treatments. Our research covers a broad range of topics spanning common mental health problems (anxiety and depression) to severe mental illness across UK and global healthcare contexts.
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Research studies:
Common Mental Health Problems
Co-Morbid Physical and Mental Health Problems
Dementia
Grief
Medically Unexplained symptoms
Perinatal Mental Health
Self Harm
Severe Mental Illness
Long COVID
The Glasgow Ageing Research Network
Ageing research at the University of Glasgow is varied and cutting edge; scientists from a wide range of disciplines use state-of-the-art approaches to understand the causes and consequences of ageing. The Glasgow Ageing Research Network brings these diverse approaches together with a group of researchers committed to pursuing inter-disciplinary approaches to ageing research. Combining our strengths in clinical research, ecology and evolutionary biology, molecular and cellular biology, chemistry, engineering, psychology and social science, the Glasgow Ageing Research Network explores all the facets of ageing, from the mechanisms underlying it to how ageing impacts on the lives of people and animals.
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Research Themes:
Healthy Ageing Across the Life Course.
We are pioneering a cutting edge multi disciplinary approach for the identification of health determinants, their validation, and the validation of risk factors for disease and disability. This is designed to elucidate the interaction between an individual’s genetics, epigenetics, behavioural, socioeconomic, occupational, nutritional and other modifiable lifestyle factors throughout the life course and to evaluate their contribution to different ageing trajectories.
Diseases of Ageing.
Researchers at the University of Glasgow are bringing together their diverse knowledge and expertise to better understand the common diseases of ageing. Although the incidence of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and dementia increase strikingly during late life, the reasons for this are poorly understood.
Mechanisms, Biomarkers and Comparative Biology of Ageing.
Our researchers explore the ageing process at a fundamental and highly integrative level, exploring the causes and consequences of ageing from the molecule right up to the level of the individual and the population. With extensive expertise in ecology and evolutionary biology, molecular and cellular biology, medicine (human and veterinary), neuroscience, chemistry and engineering, we are applying interdisciplinary approaches to study ageing using a wide-range of model and non-model systems.
Institute of Healthy Ageing
The UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing (IHA) is a centre of excellence for research on the biology of ageing and ageing-related diseases.
Ageing is now the predominant cause of disease worldwide and yet it remains poorly understood.
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The aim of research at the IHA is to discover the biological mechanisms of ageing to help us understand the causes of age-related diseases and improve human health at older ages.
Because human ageing is so very complex, our main approach is to discover the mechanisms of ageing first in simple, experimentally tractable organisms.
Understanding the biology of ageing is one of the most important challenges in biomedical research today.
Oxford Institute of Population Ageing
Researching the implications of changing population age structure
The Oxford Institute of Population Ageing was established in 1998. Based on the US Population Centre, it was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Health (National Institute on Aging - NIA) to establish the UK's first population centre on the demography and economics of ageing populations. It achieved Institute status in 2001.
Our aim is to undertake research into the implications of population change.
Research Strands:
Understanding Demographic Change - The Demographic Change Programme addresses one of the key challenges of the 21st Century: how societies will adapt to the tremendous population changes ahead.
Demography and Economy - The global labour market is being transformed by population change. This programme is examining some of the key questions through our extensive evidence base collected using self-report surveys, interviews, observation, documentary and secondary data analyses
Demography and Society - The research programme concerns examining intergenerational family roles and relationships.
Biodemography and Health - This considers the implications of population ageing for health and long-term care.
The Clore Programme on Population and Environment - The challenge raised by the interactions of global climate change and rapidly changing demographic structures throughout the world carries both opportunities if successfully managed and significant risks if public policy interventions fail.
Centre for Ageing and the Life Course (CALC)
The Centre for Ageing and the Life Course (CALC) explores the underpinning factors shaping inequalities in ageing, as well as the subjective meaning and lived experience of health and well-being in later life.
Led by social scientists, our members' disciplinary backgrounds cover a wide variety of disciplines including: arts and the humanities, public health, clinical medicine, and biological science. In true interdisciplinary fashion, we strive to address questions of concern to age and ageing by employing the most appropriate mix of theoretical and practical frameworks.
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Ageing Research Projects include:
The ‘Frailty and Ethnicity’ research project brings together two concepts that are multifaceted lived experiences – the relationship between ethnicity and the experience of frailty in old age – in one of Britain’s most diverse cities (Leicester).
Focussed on the lived experiences of older Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Indians, Caribbeans, and members of the African and White communities, the research aims to further understanding of frailty relative to ethnicity through analysing the collective lived experience.
Existential loneliness in old age'. This project explores the concept of loneliness among older people as they confront loss, uncertainty, and approach the end of life
TwinsUK, KCL
TwinsUK is the UK’s largest adult twin registry and the most clinically detailed in the world. Since setting up the cohort in 1992, the registry now has over 16,000 identical and non-identical twins from across the UK, with ages between eighteen and one hundred. TwinsUK aims to investigate the genetic and environmental basis of a range of complex diseases and conditions. Current research includes the genetics of metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, the musculoskeletal system, ageing, sight, diet and the microbiome. TwinsUK data have enabled multiple collaborations with research groups worldwide and the publication of 1,000 research papers in the last ten years.
Scottish Brain Science
Scottish Brain Sciences has been created by a team of scientific experts with over 25 years’ experience of delivering world-leading neuroscience research. Backed by investors, pharmaceutical partners and leading universities, we are committed to delivering a step change in the early detection and treatment of brain conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
We deliver clinical trials of new tests and medicines that aim to detect brain disease early and treat it before it progresses to dementia. We provide a full-service model for clinical research, with dedicated brain health research centres, an in-house laboratory and imaging services.
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Together with our participants, we are building one of the world’s largest biobanks of genetic, blood and imaging data in neurodegenerative disease.
Our goal is to speed progress in the search for better Alzheimer’s diagnostics and treatments so that everyone can enjoy better brain health for life.
Centre for Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism
At the Centre for Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism, we seek to understand the impact of nutrition and exercise on human physiology and metabolism. The application of this research ranges from prevention of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and understanding how therapeutic interventions improve health across the lifespan, through to the enhancement of training and performance for athletes.
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Examples of major workstreams include:
• Energy balance, appetite and food intake
• Nutrient timing, meal patterns and biological rhythms
• Overfeeding, obesity and weight gain
• Cardiometabolic effects of exercise, physical activity and weight loss
• Ageing, lifestyle and immuno-metabolic health
• Occupational physiology, sports nutrition and human performance
• Molecular mechanisms of insulin action and energy homeostasis
English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)
The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) is a unique and rich resource of information on the dynamics of health, social, wellbeing and economic circumstances in the English population aged 50 and older.
ELSA began in 2002 with a nationally-representative sample of 12,099 people aged 50+ and more than 19,000 women and men have taken part since it started. ELSA is an open access resource for researchers and policy analysts, providing high quality data on ageing that can be interrogated from multiple perspectives.
The study is currently funded by the National Institute on Aging in the USA and by the UK government departments of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Transport, and Work and Pensions (DWP) coordinated by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR). Funding has also been received in the past from HM Treasury (HMT), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as well as the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
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The information collected by ELSA includes:
- Demographic data such as household structure, ethnicity, marital status and education.
- Income and assets data including earnings, pensions, housing wealth, mortgages and debts.
- Employment status, job details and reasons for retirement.
- Information on work conditions and work-related stress.
- Spending patterns.
- Expectations on mortality, employment and finance.
- Social and civic participation, transport, social connectedness and support.
- Physical health, mobility, pain and disability and prescribed medications.
- Mental health including psychiatric diagnoses and symptoms of depression and anxiety.
- Behavioural health including smoking, physical activity, sexual activity, nutrition and sleep.
- Psychological and social wellbeing including quality of life, loneliness and social isolation.
- Cognitive function including memory, literacy, problem solving ability and dementia.
- Physical examination and performance including blood pressure, lung function, grip strength and balance, and blood tests for measurement of biomarkers and genetics.
- Interviews with a relative or friend of a deceased respondent at which information is gathered on the individual’s health and assets, and on the financial costs of the end of life.
- Life history assessment to collect data on early life experiences.
Centre for Healthier Lives
There is growing evidence that lifestyle choices have profound effects on health and wellbeing. From conception to old age, what we eat, how physically active we are, and our alcohol use can have an impact. These are challenges shared by everyone around the world.
Our vision is to provoke a step change in intervention design, delivery and evaluation. Disrupting conventional thinking and approaches, we aim to improve health across the life course.
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We focus on those behaviours, including diet, physical activity, and alcohol consumption, that drive many health outcomes globally. These include:
dementia, obesity, diabetes, micronutrient deficiencies, cardiometabolic disease, cancers, depression
Alzeihmer Scotland Centre for Policy and Practice
The Alzheimer Scotland Centre for Policy and Practice is committed to championing excellence advancing dementia policy and practice through education, applied research and social enterprise in three key activities:
Policy influencing and implementation.
Applied research for policy and practice
Education to promote evidence informed practice
Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC)
DSDC Wales have an international reputation for interdisciplinary ageing and dementia research. Our work is situated within the global trend for longevity and international policy ambitions for healthy ageing, addressing major societal challenges around living as well as possible with chronic and degenerative health conditions, specialising in dementia research. We work closely with older people, people living with dementia and their carers, together with health and social care professionals to ensure our research will make a difference, improve the quality of care and inform policy and practice development.
CADA: Creative Ageing: Development & Agency
CADA exists to drive system change for under-represented and under-served older creatives and communities. We use radical approaches that celebrate our ageing. As a national creative charity, we work with academic partners to explore novel projects and dynamic partnerships that challenge the narrative on ageing through the lens of intersectionality.
Healthy Later Living Network
We are an international, interdisciplinary collaboration of academics, experts by experience, practitioners, policymakers and partners from the private and public sector. Our overarching aim is to lead, challenge and enable change to policy and practice which contributes to ageing well and living a healthy later life.
Centre for Research on Ageing
The Centre for Research on Ageing is an international and multi-disciplinary research centre examining key issues in ageing and the lifecourse, informing policy and debate at the national and local level.
Through high quality research, the Centre for Research on Ageing contributes to a better understanding of the experience of ageing amongst different groups and societies, which will in turn place us in a better strategic position to improve the quality of life of older people.
The Centre for Ageing and Biographical Studies (CABS)
The Centre for Ageing and Biographical Studies (CABS) , The Open University, focuses on ageing across the lifecourse with a particular emphasis on later life. Established in 1995, it was a pioneering interdisciplinary centre at a time of great interest in ageing societies and continues to research and debate contemporary issues in ageing of relevance to academics, practitioners, policy makers and to the broader society.
The Ageing & Dementia Research Centre (ADRC)
The Ageing & Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) at Bournemouth University brings together cross-faculty research expertise in areas of ageing and dementia. The research team is supported by experts in health and social science, and in science and technology. The aim of the ADRC is to use the team’s collective expertise to develop person-centred research which will improve the lives of people with dementia and their families.
The team at the Centre works closely with people with dementia and their carers in the development and implementation of their research.
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Key areas of activity relate to:
Developing ageing and dementia-friendly environments
Nutrition and well-being
Activities and social inclusion including healthy lifestyles with minority ethnic communities
Developing and evaluating innovative dementia education including working with people with dementia to develop these materials
Healthy Ageing & Chronic Conditions Research Institute
The Healthy Ageing & Chronic Conditions Research Institute is leading innovative inter-disciplinary approaches to promote lifelong health & deliver improved interventions to manage chronic conditions more efficiently. Throughout our lives we are exposed to environmental, biological, psychological, & social factors that affect our health & well-being. The Healthy Ageing & Chronic Conditions Research Institute produces high quality evidence to better understand these factors, & to develop policies & practices to support people to age well.
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Our research spans all stages of life & integrates insights from the cellular to the societal level. This is underpinned by international interdisciplinary research that encompasses large scale observational studies, experimental research, qualitative studies, & the delivery of advances in prevention, early diagnosis & treatment, to improve the clinical management of chronic conditions.
National Innovation Centre Ageing
We enable businesses to harness the opportunities related to the longevity economy through human experience, ethics, data, collaboration, emerging technologies & innovative business models.
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Data & Insights: We merge human experience with research knowledge and market data, turning this into people-driven insight.
Experience & Design: We translate our ageing consultancy insights into practical solutions through understanding real human experiences.
Horizoning: We help identify the foreseeable and unexpected shifts leveraged by the demographic revolution to offer ageing innovation.
Centre for Health Technology
The Centre for Health Technology (CHT) brings together academics from a wide range of disciplines in the University’s Faculties of Health, Science and Engineering, and Arts Humanities and Business. CHT also enjoys brilliant external partnerships - with our local health and care systems, businesses and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector; with regional and national NHSE and with national and international companies and academics.
Recognising that adoption of Digital Health Technologies (DHTs) in health and care rests on both technological excellence and the need to address a range of architectural, evidential, socio-economic and cultural challenges, CHT brings together a truly multi-disciplinary team. Some of our members specialise in the development of novel DHTs (from apps and wearables, virtual reality and robotics to the deployment of AI). Others bring expertise in implementation science, knowledge mobilisation and evaluation (inc. economic evaluation) to support digital transformation.
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Our mission is to address digital health inequalities, whether that be from geography, age, deprivation, or disability. We take a whole system approach considering not just the co-design and development of cutting-edge technology and the optimisation of data; but barriers and enablers to its translation in the complex health and care landscape; as well as its impact on the health of populations, the well-being of our health and care workforce and its ability to improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of health and care systems as a whole.
Northampton Dementia Research and Innovation Centre (NDRIC)
The Northamptonshire Dementia Research and Innovation Centre (NDRIC) is based in the Faculty of Health, Education and Society. Underpinning all of NDRIC’s work is a commitment to ensuring the centrality of the ‘voices’ of people with dementia, including those with a younger onset, and carers.
NDRIC works in collaboration with health and social care providers, voluntary organisations, students, and the public to design and develop contemporary and innovative approaches to the provision of person-centred community-based care and support for people living with dementia and their carers. We are a research and innovation hub focusing on early diagnosis, community-based post diagnostic interventions, and social support for people with dementia and carers.
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People with dementia want to live normally in safe and accepting communities. We bring together researchers, educationalists, and innovators who are interested in actively promoting personal independence, social integration and normalisation. NDRIC builds upon their lived experience and expertise in establishing person-centred community-based psychosocial support networks; diagnostic processes and post diagnostic support mechanisms in young onset dementia; assistive technologies, developing integrated care in community settings; and neurological disease and portable balance measurement.
Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group (MUARG)
The Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group (MUARG) is an interdisciplinary research group which brings together researchers from a wide variety of backgrounds who work closely together with national, regional, and local government, voluntary and community organisations, national and international non-governmental organisations, and older people, to promote age-friendly urban environments. The aim is the group is threefold: first, to undertake pioneering, interdisciplinary, and globally reaching research on urban ageing; second, to champion novel methodologies and approaches that actively involve older people as co-investigators, thereby fostering an inclusive, participatory and collaborative research ethos; and third, to actively contribute to the development of evidence-based policy and practice aimed at improving the experience of ageing in cities and reduce social exclusion in later life.
Plymouth Institute of Health and Care Research (PIHR)
From basic research discovering the causes of disease, through to evaluating novel ways of delivering care to the most vulnerable people in society, the Plymouth Institute of Health and Care Research (PIHR) is a thriving community that conducts adventurous world-leading research with the explicit purpose of improving the health and care of the populations we serve. At the heart of PIHR’s mission is a desire to solve the problems that really matter to people.
Our mission is to promote an interdisciplinary, inclusive enterprise with a real commitment to working across boundaries in order to meet the needs of the people of the South West and other rural, coastal, and deprived communities worldwide.
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Research Themes:
Brain and mind discovery research: Research to provide a deeper understanding of nervous system function and performance, from fundamental molecular neuroscience to psychological and physical measurement of behavioural, cognitive and social function.
Brain and mind translation research: This brain and mind research theme brings focus to the understanding and characterisation of change in mind and brain function, and the differences that arise between individuals.
Brain and mind community research: The brain and mind community research focuses on the relationship between scientific discovery and the wider community. This not only includes the development, specification, and delivery of evidence-based interventions, but also the promotion of behaviours that can support health and wellbeing, both at an individual and at a group level.
Shirley Jordan, Rachel Cooper, David Lain, Jenny Liddle & Matthew Prina
Centre for Ageing and Inequalities
Co-Directors
Centre for Ageing and Inequalities
Improving the health and wellbeing of older people and challenging inequalities in later life. Increasing longevity is a major achievement of human history. But not everyone can look forward to a wealthy, healthy or long life.
Where people live and the social groups they belong to greatly influences experiences of later life. Too often, research and policy on ageing fails to consider the inequality that affects ageing adults.
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Our interdisciplinary approach considers a wide range of topics that are hallmarks of an ageing society. They include health, life expectancy, incomes, pensions, employment, housing, citizenship and cultural participation.
Paul Greenhaff & Simon Jones
Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing Research (CMAR)
Director & Deputy Director
Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing Research (CMAR)
The mission of Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing Research (CMAR) is to increase understanding of the biology of age-related musculoskeletal deterioration, to include identification of the factors influencing an individual’s trajectory towards frailty and the processes underpinning the transition to musculoskeletal disease. We are building an internationally recognised and globally networked research platform, capable of generating novel and clinically testable approaches to reduce musculoskeletal ageing and disease.
Aston Research Centre for Health in Ageing (ARCHA)
The mission of the Aston Research Centre for Health in Ageing (ARCHA) is to understand, predict, prevent and treat age-related degeneration and disease. We have a specific focus on health, metabolism, the mind, and medicines in the context of the biology, psychology, and clinical aspects of ageing.
Our cross-disciplinary team of researchers specialise in biology, psychology, medicine, pharmacy and allied health sciences. Research within the centre contributes to two of the College of Health and Life Sciences’ four key multidisciplinary themes; cellular and molecular biomedicine, and health and disease across the lifespan.
Centre for Applied Dementia Studies (CfADS)
The Centre for Applied Dementia Studies is one of the UK’s leading centres for psychosocial research into living well with, and caring well for, people with dementia and their families.
We have over 30 years’ experience of carrying out high-quality pioneering research to make a difference to the lives of people with dementia by influencing policy and practice.
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This Research Includes:
INTERDEM- the pan-European network of dementia researchers, and its taskforces on assistive technology, primary prevention and intercultural care
Critical Dementia Studies Network
Dementia, Culture and Narrative network
Young Dementia Network
NIHR Dementias Portfolio
Primary Prevention Development Group
Keele Institute for Social Inclusion (KISI)
The Institute promotes and supports a wide range of interdisciplinary research, co-created with external partners, that seeks to identify, explain and overcome social, economic, political and cultural obstacles to egalitarian respect and social inclusion.
KISI brings researchers from across the University together with external partners to address a range of problems related to the marginalisation, under-representation and disempowerment of various social groups, including work with older people that builds on Keele's pioneering Centre for Social Gerontology.
Our work with older people is presently focused in two directions. Firstly, on Creative Ageing, that builds on the widely recognised Ages and Stages work of Prof Mim Bernard, MBE, and led now by Prof David Amigoni, in collaboration with the New Vic Theatre, North Staffs. KISI also hosts the coCREATE network, launched in 2021, this network integrates all the innovative community-based, collaborative and creative research across the University. And secondly, the clinical work of Prof Carolyn Chew-Graham's team, which focuses on older people's mental health in Keele's School of Medicine.
Bruce Guthrie, Susan Shenkin, Janice Murray
Advanced Care Research Centre
ACRC Director, ACRC Academy Deputy Director, Partnership and Communications Manager
Advanced Care Research Centre
The Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC) is a multi-disciplinary research programme combining research across fields including medicine and other care professions, engineering, informatics, data and social sciences.
Our vision is to improve the quality and sustainability of care provision and to reduce inequalities in care provision in order to enhance the quality of life, dignity and the desired level of independence of people living with multiple conditions in later life.
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Research Areas:
Enhancing the data infrastructure, including health and social care data.
Understanding the person in context, highlighting an approach to care that promotes continuing social participation and active citizenship, reflecting that we will almost all be carers and cared for at different times of our lives.
Data Driven insight and prediction: We will analyse the health and social care data to develop new insights into health, vulnerability and care in later life.
Integrated technologies of care & New models of care. Care in later life in the community is typically low-tech and data-poor. We will create a large-scale ‘community collaboratory’ for developing, evaluating and translating into practice multiple new technologies of care.
Agriculture, Food and health
With the world’s population set to rise to nine billion by 2050, we face huge challenges in providing enough nutritious food for everyone, using methods that are environmentally sustainable. At the same time, as the population ages, more people will experience non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, dementia and cancer. Our world-leading research in Agriculture, Food and Health is addressing these challenges.
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We apply our expertise to address global issues including climate change, resource degradation, hunger, poverty, diet and health. Our experts work with partners globally and locally to influence both policy and practice to ensure evidence-informed decision making.
To better understand and develop new therapies for complex health conditions such as dementia and heart disease, we work with a well-established network of clinical partners, both in the UK and globally. We work across disciplines to enhance well-being, prevent disease, improve diagnoses, develop new therapies and advance clinical practice.
Glasgow Geroscience Group
The findings from geroscience research have the potential to revolutionize the fields of healthcare and medicine, leading to the development of novel preventive and therapeutic approaches for age-related diseases.
These discoveries may ultimately contribute to extending human healthspan, which refers to the period of life during which an individual remains generally healthy and free from age-related diseases
Our research team is made up of specialists from an array of interdisciplinary fields committed to uncovering the fundamental processes that underlie the aging process at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels.
Centre for Ageing Population Studies (CAPS)
A leading multidisciplinary centre conducting ageing research and developing interventions for health concerns of later life
CAPS aims to better understand age-related conditions that impact on well-being and independence in later life. We also aim to translate this knowledge to develop and test complex interventions to improve health and well-being and maintain independence for older people.
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Current and Recent Research:
Supporting self management of long term conditions
Promoting Independence and well-being in later life
Dementia and Cognitive Impairment
Mental health and well-being in later life
Risk factors, risk prediction and timely diagnosis of age-related conditions
Identifying and reducing inequalities in access to healthcare for older people
ART of Healthy Ageing Network
ART of Healthy Ageing. Building the capacity to translate discoveries in ageing science to intervention studies in humans across the life course. Major advances are being made in ageing science, but these advances are not always being translated from the laboratory to the clinic. The ART (Ageing Research Translation) of Healthy Ageing Network, funded by BBSRC-MRC, aims to address this by bringing together people from a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to the biology of ageing, epidemiology, physiology, sports and exercise medicine, geriatric medicine, clinical trials, social gerontology and data science.
Centre for Lifelong Health
The Centre for Lifelong Health has scientific expertise in exploring novel solutions to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of a range of chronic diseases
Research takes advantage of the multi- and inter-disciplinary nature of its staff with strong links between the biological and chemical sciences. This work has generated novel compounds and ligands to manipulate the ageing process, explored factors that are important in the initiation and progression of disease, identified new drug targets to treat a range of chronic conditions, and has developed i) novel ways to diagnose a range of conditions and ii) devices to replace or improve organ function
We have international expertise in the areas of Ageing, Cancer, Gastrointestinal disorders, Hearing, HIV and Musculo-skeletal disorders.
UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge
This challenge aimed to support companies to overcome the barriers to innovation in addressing the growing market opportunities arising from an ageing population.
The challenge vision was to allow people to remain active, productive, independent and socially connected across generations for as long as possible.
It would achieve this by enabling businesses, including social enterprises, to develop and deliver products and services which support people as they age, and the innovative business models that enable them to be adopted at scale.
Research and innovations addressed key societal challenges aligned to seven themes:
- creating healthy active places
- design for age-friendly homes
- living well with cognitive impairment
- managing common complaints of ageing
- maintaining health at work
- supporting social connections
- sustaining physical activity
Andrea Tales, Charles Musselwhite, Gill Windle
Centre for Ageing and Dementia Research [CADR]
Directors
Centre for Ageing and Dementia Research [CADR]
Building on existing internationally recognised and transformative research networks the Centre for Ageing and Dementia Research (CADR) is a world class research centre addressing key internationally important questions in ageing and dementia. The Centre integrates multi-disciplinary activity and develops areas of expertise from biological, through psycho-social and environmental, to social policy in ageing and dementia.
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The strategic objectives of the Centre will be to:
Developing an understanding of ageing and dementia in several disciplines through a joint mission
Providing the infrastructure to enable leading researchers in ageing and dementia research to develop collaborative internationally competitive interdisciplinary research
Building research capacity to support an increase in grant capture
Providing support for PhD students and early career researchers
Applying knowledge to improve the lives of older people
Robotics Engineering and Computing for Healthcare (REACH)
Research into robotics technologies, intelligent sensors and AI to realise user-centred innovative healthcare solutions that improve Quality of Life, Health and Well-being.
We are a multi-disciplinary group and our research covers the design, development and evaluation of socially and physically assistive robots, rehabilitation robotics and smart prosthetics, smart home and wearable sensors, as well as apps for health and well-being.
Underpinning these systems, our research covers the foundational areas of machine learning and Artificial Intelligence, data fusion, human-robot interaction, machine vision, safety and ethics.
Centre for Ageing Research (C4AR)
Lancaster University's Centre for Ageing Research (C4AR) activity focuses on how we can ensure older people experience an active and healthy older age and how we can “compress morbidity” so that periods of poor health in later life start later. In this way, our healthy lifespan becomes closer to our actual lifespan.
This will have significant impacts on us all as individuals as we age, but also on those who care for us and the costs for our health and social care systems.
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Our Objectives are:
• To promote and conduct high-quality interdisciplinary research concerning ageing throughout Lancaster University, and beyond to national and international academic, policy, practitioner and older people's networks;
• To maintain our strong international visibility and reputation for ageing research and research-led teaching at Lancaster, further establishing Lancaster as a major international hub for research, scholarship and debate around ageing.
• To provide a locus for external funding applications for interdisciplinary ageing research.
• To develop postgraduate training in ageing and provide a major point of attraction for postgraduate teaching and research in the field;
• To develop CPD training on ageing for those tasked with planning and providing care and support for ageing populations across the UK and beyond. Importantly, Lancaster's reputation for interdisciplinarity underpins its strength in the field of Ageing Research, with researchers across disciplines working together with end-users of our research, including industry, health and social care, and older adults themselves, to gain detailed insights and offer more effective interventions to support a more successful ageing process.
NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) works to transform lives through world-leading research in ageing and multiple long-term conditions.
Our experimental medicine and translational research turns innovative ideas and discoveries into practical benefits for patients, as well as contributing to the local and national economy.
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Research Themes:
Ageing, sarcopenia and multimorbidity
Dementia, mental health and neurodegeneration
Digital Health, Ageing Innovation and Inclusion
Informatics and Precision Care for an Ageing Population
Liver disease, multimorbidity and lifestyle
Musculoskeletal disease and inflammation medicine
Neuromuscular disease, rare diseases and mitochondrial dysfunction
Skin disease, oral disease and immunogenomics
IMPACT
IMPACT is the UK centre for implementing evidence in adult social care. Working across the four nations and with co-production at its heart, we draw on insights from research, lived experience, and practice knowledge to make a difference to front-line services, and to people’s lives.
We believe “good support isn’t just about ‘services’ – it’s about having a life.“ In pursuit of this vision of adult social care, key objectives for the centre are to enable practical improvements on the ground and make a crucial contribution to longer-term cultural change by:
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Increasing the use of high-quality evidence, leading to better care practices, systems and outcomes
Building capacity and skills in the adult social care workforce to work with evidence of different kinds to innovate and deliver better outcomes
Developing relationships between a wide range of stakeholders across the sector, to improve outcomes for people who draw on services and their families
Improving understanding of what elements of evidence implementation do and do not work in practice, and using this to overcome barriers
School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health
Research is the prime activity of the School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health and forms the central core around which all our other activities, including teaching, training, clinical care and public outreach take place. In order to achieve our objectives, we need to further support our areas of strength, but also concentrate more effort and resources on the areas identified as demonstrating potential to be fields of research excellence.
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Our research is divided into 4 broad themes: cardiac, cardiovascular data science, metabolic and vascular with our staff conducting world-leading research in a number of specialised fields within these themes.
Our School aims to enhance human health by advancing and implementing discoveries leading to improved prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Dementia Research Group
Our Dementia Research Group at the University of Hull focuses on research into dementia care not cure. Our mission is to empower people with dementia and their carers to live well. We aim to deliver research on psychosocial interventions and resources that can improve the daily lives of people with dementia and their families. All our research is carried out in collaboration with our lived experience group the Hull Dementia Advisory Board.
ReMind
ReMind UK is an internationally renowned research and treatment centre, with our headquarters located in Bath. We’re an independent charity focused on essential research and providing support for people with dementia and other conditions of older age, their families and carers.
Community and Primary Care Research Group
The Community and Primary Care Research Group (CPCRG) is intensively research active and has a strong proven track record of Health Services Research. Our research is often directed towards those individuals who are the most excluded or disempowered, have mental health problems and have difficulty accessing services.
CPCRG is at the forefront of advancing dementia research, with a focus on improving the support and quality of life of people with dementia and their carers. We are a collaborative group of researchers and clinicians aiming to address the local and global challenges faced by those affected by dementia.
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Additional Research includes:
'ActivDyad' study aims to understand how social and environmental contexts influence physical activity in older age.
The EHCH Framework Study, this qualitative study will explore the implementation of the Enhanced Health in Care Homes (EHCH) framework across eight care homes across the Torbay and South Devon region by capturing the experiences and voices of residents, family members and care staff.
Centre for Adult Social Care Research (CARE)
The Centre is based in the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. Our mission is to advance knowledge and understanding in the field of adult social care through multidisciplinary research and collaboration. CARE will generate high quality evidence about social care for adults (including older adults), rooted in the experience of people who receive care and support and those who provide care, and based on the most rigorous research approaches suitable for the questions being addressed. We are funded by Health and Care Research Wales. We welcome enquiries from potential collaborators.
Healthy Ageing & Care Research Network
The Healthy Ageing & Care Research Network connects over 100 researchers from a wide range of disciplines across the university to partners in the community, business, and the public sector, in order to better understand and address the complex challenges and opportunities of an ageing world. We work closely with the Oxford Institute of Applied Health Research (OxInAHR), the Institute of Public Care (IPC), the Centre for Movement, Occupational and Rehabilitation Sciences (MOReS), and other centres of excellence across the university.
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Our research strengths lie in four overlapping fields:
- Smart and sustainable environments and communities
- Supporting healthy brains and bodies
- Nurturing creativity and wellness across generations
- Creating just, equitable, caring society for all ages and abilities
Our projects create impact and aim to enhance policy both locally and internationally.
Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design
Age & Diversity Research Space asks 'How can designers shape a future that is inclusive of all?'
Design touches people’s lives every day. Within the Age & Diversity Research Space, we consider people’s everyday experiences over the broadest dimensions of age and diversity. We explore age in all its guises – whether that is digital age, social age, educational age, the age spectrum, or life course transitions; however, we do not focus exclusively on later life.
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We also consider the younger years and the potential of inter-generational connections. In terms of diversity, we endeavour to include groups that remain under-represented, approaching projects in a way that inspires empathy, engagement, and empowerment.
We use design ethnography and empathy-driven approaches towards affecting positive change in issues of everyday life and experience.
The projects in the Age & Diversity Research Space are organised into four research themes. The first three focus on projects with industry and research council projects. The fourth, the Business of Inclusive Design, looks at engaging with practising designers and business through knowledge transfer mechanisms such as workshops, events and the creation of tools and resources.
Centre for Motivation and Health Behaviour Change
We focus on the study and application of motivation. We aim to understand the determinants of wellness and health, and guide behaviour-change interventions.
Our research aims to better understand the determinants of health and wellbeing in the context of key public health issues. We strive to guide the development, refinement, and testing of novel and innovative interdisciplinary health behaviour-change interventions.
Centre for Research into the Older Workforce
Centre for Research into the Older Workforce.
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Areas of research:
Empowering social care workers.
Globally, populations are ageing and the demand for eldercare provision is growing.
Military transitions after 50.
Active Ageing through Social Partnership in Europe.
Age and Migration Studies.
Frontiers Research Topic: Ageing and Migration Status: Intersectional Forms of Discrimination and Exclusion
Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN)
The Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN) is an interdisciplinary research centre of the University of Reading. We take a multilevel approach to the study of brain and behaviour – from the fast neural timescale of milliseconds, to the slow timescale of life-span development. The centre is home to an advanced suite of neuroimaging technologies, a potent analytics platform, and expertise in the theory and practice of interdisciplinarity.
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Research at the Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN) investigates the dynamical interactions that bring about human thought and behaviour – from the fast neural timescale of a few milliseconds, to the slow timescale of life-span development.
We take a relentlessly interdisciplinary approach. We build on the excellence of our research in neuroscience, cognitive science and philosophy, systems biology, physiology, cybernetics, mathematics and statistics, psychology and language sciences, to collaborate with clinicians, educators, engineers, regulators and other public organisations to translate our work to societal benefit.
Association for Dementia Studies
Our aim is to make a substantial contribution to building evidence-based practical ways of working with people living with dementia and their families that enables them to live well. We do this primarily through research, education and scholarship.
Our work focusses on 4 core areas of expertise where we have a proven track record. These are based on having alignment with national dementia policy, building on expertise and opportunities within ADS, aligning to the university policy and values and to the value base of ADS.
- Home, Communities, Public Health and Diversity: living well post diagnosis
- Skilled Care, Assessment and Leadership in Services for People Living with Dementia and Complex Needs
- Enriching Lives in dementia through Creativity, Arts, Nature and Sport
- Dementia Friendly Person-Centred Design & Technology