Multidisciplinary Institute of Ageing - Portugal

ongoing

The present Teaming second phase application will create the first Centre of Excellence in Ageing Research in Southern Europe and in a R&D low-performing EU member state, to reduce disparities and to bridge the gap between fundamental research and its translation into human intervention. The new Centre of Excellence, the Multidisciplinary Institute of Ageing (MIA-Portugal), will be a new Strategic Research Institute with the University of Coimbra as the core scientific element of a new living laboratory, Ageing@Coimbra’. The overall objective of the new Centre of Excellence is to improve health and wellbeing of an ageing population and benefit from excellence science and innovation potential to deliver business opportunities. Based on an international forefront position in Biology of Ageing, it will create knowledge to promote healthy living, develop, validate and deliver interventions that improve human healthy life expectancy, with a specific focus on those members of both genders of the population with the lowest healthy life expectancy, and promote innovation transfer into practices and services. This will contribute to reduce the socioeconomic burden of chronic diseases and inadequate ageing of population and will foster functional independence, stimulate the economy and raise new high-qualified jobs. MIA-Portugal will be a stepping-stone and sustainable flagship project of the Centro Region of Portugal. The direct investment of MIA-Portugal mounts to >50 million euros. MIA-Portugal is a teaming partnership between the University of Coimbra (UC) (partner in a low R&D-performing country) and the University of Newcastle (UNEW) plus the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) (partners in high R&D-performing countries), with strong support from a Technology Park (IPN) and the Regional Authority CCDRC, and synergies with EIT Health Knowledge and Innovation Communities and the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing Reference Sites.