NEWBREED · Training a new breed of interdisciplinary researchers to respond to the opportunities and challenges of ageing

Training a new breed of interdisciplinary researchers to respond to the opportunities and challenges of ageing

The ageing population is one of the world’s grand challenges of the 21st century. How to cope with populations that are living ever longer and understanding the processes and means of tackling and benefitting from such populations has already been studied in great detail. However, the studies have mostly been independent, in often almost unrelated areas. Successful Ageing as a concept can be defined in many different ways. The World Health Organization (WHO) has chosen the expression healthy ageing and has outlined the challenges in a recent fact sheet (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health). Healthy ageing is defined as ‘the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age’. Even though the WHO points out challenges, there are also opportunities for all parts of society as the senior cohort has much to offer. Furthermore, ageing research cannot be based on a stereotype of older persons but must also consider a larger range of the life span. Interdisciplinary research is necessary since the reality of ageing is too complex to grasp within just one discipline. Therefore, knowledge from several levels needs to be integrated into a deeper and/or a broader understanding of the ageing process. To look at ageing throughout the whole life-course from many different dimensions, and not just in the elderly, requires a new breed of interdisciplinary researchers who have been trained to work on the topic within a number of different disciplines within science and the humanities. Newbreed, a mobility project co-funded by the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – COFUND Doctoral Programme within Horizon 2020, addressed this challenge through an interdisciplinary doctoral student research school, developed and coordinated by Örebro University in Sweden. In 2018, Newbreed appointed 16 PhD students (9 females and 7 males) from 14 countries (9 outside of the EU) chosen from some 325 applicants from the whole world (excluding Sweden as local applicants would not fulfil the mobility requirement). An unusual aspect of choosing applicants was that they were asked to provide their own suggestions for research work, a bottom-up approach that is unusual for PhD student selection, at least in Sweden. This presented some challenges but did in fact to a large extent succeed. Örebro University was especially qualified to host such a research school having funded and run a similar school in Successful Ageing. In total, with the two research schools, there were about 30 PhD students, providing a strong base in Successful Ageing not only at the university but also within the region. To answer the research needs, Newbreed was divided four thematic areas: • The Biology of Ageing, as a central theme within the field of biology, covered the extension of a healthy lifespan. • Ageing and Psychosocial Adjustment included an understanding of positive and negative wellbeing in ageing individuals through interdisciplinary lifespan perspectives. • Ageing and the Fourth Industrial Revolution covered the potential impact that new technologies may have on the ageing process. This included designs for new assistive technologies that take into consideration the needs of older people. • Ageing from a Societal Perspective examined ageing processes within and across societies, for example, how ageing intersects with class, gender and further social divisions such as economic, political and cultural dimensions. The Newbreed project turned out to be particularly timely in that the United Nations designated the years 2021–2030 as The UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, with the WHO being tasked with the implementation. The overall objective of Newbreed, which has essentially been achieved in spite of the challenges of the pandemic, was to produce 16 researchers with PhDs capable and qualified to take on future research on Successful Ageing research. The project officially ended at the end of August 2024 (total duration 84 months), having been extended due to parental leave and the effects of the pandemic. Of the 14 students who have received their PhDs so far, eleven have found employment (short-term, project-linked or permanent) within and outside of academia, in Sweden or elsewhere. The remaining three will defend their theses in the near future. One person, who has not yet defended their thesis, already has full-time employment. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 754285. The remainder of the project funding was provided by Örebro University.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union