The Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (CARDI) will be today launched in the Long Gallery in Stormont.

The Centre has been established to help both stimulate further research in the area of ageing and ensure that relevant research findings are made more widely available, to better inform planning for an ageing population across the island of Ireland .

Professor Bob Stout Co-Chair of CARDI, said: “Changing population demographics mean that there is a need for more research in a wide variety of areas relating to older people, not just health and social care but engineering, technology, housing, transport, economics, planning, sociology and others.”

 “Unfortunately, the results of research do not always reach those who are involved in making policy decisions and CARDI has been established to bridge that gap where it exists”.

Dr Roger O’Sullivan, Director of CARDI said:  “What is unique about CARDI is that it focuses on bringing together the research community and relevant players from government, voluntary and community sector and older people themselves  so that those with skills and knowledge on ageing can focus on top research priorities. CARDI will both encourage researchers to focus on the issues at the heart of enabling our ageing population to live life to the full and give older people and those designing and developing services and facilities for them access to the latest research thinking.”

He added: “It is important to plan how we, our children and our grandchildren will experience life in older years so that the enormous potential of ageing in the 21st century may be fulfilled”.