RAT group members at the Social and Technological Innovations for an Ageing Population Event

This week saw the Social and Technological Innovations foran Ageing Population Event held at the University of Sheffield.

It was an opportunity for all University of Sheffield researchers involved in this area to come together leading up to the EU’s Horizon 2020 call, the European Union’s funding programme for research and innovation beyond 2014, which has focus areas relating to personalised health and care including active ageing and self managing of health.

The workshop aimed to:

·      Assess the state of the art in research on social and technological innovation for an ageing population

·      Identify gaps in research and social policy

·      Identify the major challenges to the effective promotion and take-up of social technological innovations

·      Map potential research collaborations within the University

The day started with talks from Professor Mark Hawley and Professor Gail Mountain from the RAT group, along with colleagues Professor Alan Walker and Dr Bridgette Wessels in the Department of Sociological Studies and Dr Nadir Osman in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, setting out current research being undertaken at Sheffield. It explored how to further develop a research strategy and undertake interdisciplinary research across the University, highlighting the importance of linking technological (e.g. assisted living devices), social (e.g. user groups and communities) and institutional (e.g. health reforms and social policy) innovations together and consider some of the methodological implications of this process.

Overall it was a very worthwhile event showing great potential for the University of Sheffield’s continuing research into autonomous and active ageing in preparation for the EU’s Horizon 2020 funding programme.