A focus on ageing research in Wales which will showcase a wide range of recently completed and current work from across the disciplines. The event has been designed especially to appeal to policy makers, professionals, academics from social care, health, and beyond, and as a special interest to older people.

Hosted by: OPAN Wales

Sponsored by: OPAN Wales

Event organisers:

Date: 23 July 2008

Venue:

This is a special event to review current contributions being made by scientists in Wales to improve the well-being of older people living in Wales and beyond. It is an event which has been designed to appeal to everyone - older people, carers, health professionals, social and housing services, those who work for charities and voluntary agencies, government, and many more including scientists from other fields not usually associated with ageing research. It will present work from a wide range of fields, including why cells age, vision in later life, improving urban environments in run-down areas, caring for people with long-term needs, ageing well, disability prevention, older people's use of unfamiliar space in their environments, and a lot more.  All of the presenters will have some very interesting stories to tell.

The aims of OPAN Cymru are to improve the lives of older people through the integration of research, policy and practice in Wales.

The multi-disciplinary research network links research to practice and policy-making through shared research initiatives, workshops, seminars, conferences and the website.

OPAN Cymru facilitates collaborative research projects in order to raise the profile of research into ageing. It will take the lead in developing research and can contribute expertise to other projects that require an older people or ageing dimension.

OPAN Cymru is one of nine thematic research networks, and four research infrastructure groups, funded by the Wales Office of Research and Development (WORD). The nine networks contribute to a formidable research community in the principality and are coordinated by the Clinical Research Collaboration Cymru (CRCC) OPAN Cymru is a multidisciplinary, multi-sectoral collaborative project including academics from Swansea; Bangor and Cardiff Universities together with practitioners and policy makers with a breadth of experience across the fields of health, social care, medicine and nursing.

SPARC (Strategic Promotion of Ageing Research Capacity) is funded by EPSRC and BBSRC and was established in 2005 to extend the previous remit of the EQUAL Network. SPARC is designed specifically to provide a platform, publicity and policy representation for existing researchers and to encourage newcomers into ageing research. A key aspect of its activities is working in partnership with the users of research - older people and those organisations which represent the interests of older people and which provide older people and their carers with services, advice and other support. As well as organising workshops SPARC is providing 34 pump-priming awards to newcomers to ageing research in the fields of design, engineering and biology.

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