Funded research projects

Six multinational multi-disciplinary research projects were funded by Europe's first joint research programme in the ageing field.

The successful proposals, comprising researchers from Europe and North America, responded to a pioneering call for multidisciplinary research applications on 'Active and healthy ageing across the life course', coordinated by the European Research Area on Ageing (ERA-AGE).

After a rigorous two-stage peer-review process, nine funders in seven countries committed over €4 million to 20 different partners. The six projects reflect a diverse range of issues including continence, hearing, work and retirement, ambient assisted living technologies and environments of ageing.

All proposals were aimed at supporting healthy ageing, in particular to align themselves with the goal established by the European Innovation Partnership in Active and Healthy Ageing of a two-year increase in healthy life expectancy in the European Union by 2020.

Objectives

All proposals investigate specific research questions related to these three objectives:

  1. Generate new knowledge on the biological, clinical, behavioural, social and environmental factors that enable individuals to live actively and healthily into later life.

  2. Explore comparatively different models, methods, approaches and good practices in societal responses to increased longevity which emphasise both social inclusion and sustainability.

  3. Engage in effective knowledge exchange activities that will assist European and other countries to achieve the goal of increasing healthy life expectancy by two years by 2020.

Funders

Funding was generously provided by:

  • Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS), Canada

  • Academy of Finland (AKA), Finland

  • The Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS), Sweden

  • Chief Scientist Office, Ministry of Health (CSO-MOH), Israel

  • Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR), Luxembourg

  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canada

  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), UK

  • Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), UK

Partners from France, Norway and Denmark also participated in funded projects. Below is the full list of projects, funders and research partners.

Projects

Continence across continents to upend stigma and dependency (CACTUS-D)

  • FRQS, Canada – Cara Tannenbaum, Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal

  • ESRC, UK – Eleanor van den Heuvel, Brunel University

  • CIHR, Canada – Adrian Wagg, University of Alberta

Partners with non-JCRA funding:

France – Xavier Fritel, CHU de Poitiers (funding from INPES and Agence Regional de Sante Poitou-Charentes)

Ambient assistive living technologies for wellness, engagement, and long life (AAL-WELL)

  • CIHR, Canada – Alex Mihailidis, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute

  • CIHR, Canada – Andrew Sixsmith, Simon Fraser University

  • ESRC, UK – Arlene Astell, University of St. Andrews

  • FAS, Sweden – Louise Nygard, Karolinska Institutet

Website: aal-well.org

Understanding the role of contrasting urban contexts in healthy aging: An international study of daily mobility and active living using wearable sensor devices across cohorts (CURHA)

  • CIHR/FRQS, Canada – Yan Kestens, Université de Montréal

  • FNR, Luxembourg – Philippe Gerber, CEPS/INSTEAD

Independently funded partners:

France – Basile Chaix, INSERM (funding from Ministry of Transportation, the Syndicat des Transport de I'lle de France (STIF), RATP, SNCF and conseil Regional de I'lle de France)

Healthy ageing in residential places (HARP)

  • CIHR, Canada – Dr Pat Armstrong, York University

  • FAS, Sweden – Dr Marta Szebehely, Stockholm University

  • ESRC, UK – Dr Liz Lloyd, University of Bristol

Independently funded partners:

Norway - Dr. Mia Vabø, NOVA – Norwegian Social Research

Determinants of healthy ageing in work and retirement: A cross-national longitudinal study based on the integrated datasets across Europe for ageing research (IDEAR) network

  • FAS, Sweden – Hugo Westerlund, Stockholm University

  • AKA, Sweden – Jussi Vahtera, University of Turku

  • ESRC, UK – Jenny Head, UCL

Independently funded partners:

  • Denmark – Naja Hulvej Rod, University of Copenhagen

  • France – Marcel Goldberg, INSERM

Hearing, remembering, and living well: Paying attention to challenges of older adults in noisy environments (HEARATTN)

  • CSO-MOH, Israel – Daniel A. Levy, The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya

  • AKA, Finland – Anne Viljanen, University of Jyväskylä

  • BBSRC, UK – Antje Heinrich, MRC Institute of Hearing Research

  • CIHR, Canada – Bruce Schneider, University of Toronto

  • FRQS, Canada – Jean-Pierre Gagné, Université de Montréal