BIRAX Ageing is expected to play a significant role in addressing the global challenges of ageing. Launched in 2018, it brings together the UK and Israel’s world-class and complementary scientific capabilities for research into, and promotion of, healthy ageing.
BIRAX Ageing will fund research projects, increase collaboration and through scientific conferences, researcher mobility opportunities and cultivation of a new bilateral researcher community. It will also raise public awareness through media and public activities.
BIRAX Ageing is currently focused on two priorities:
- Researching the impact of ageing on human health, including its interplay with heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, multiple sclerosis, frailty, and multi-morbidity.
- Advancing technology and precision medicine in ageing research, including innovative biomarkers, algorithms, and computational and measurement techniques.
Why is ageing research so crucial?
Ageing, and its medical, social and economic implications, are an increasingly urgent global challenge. Ageing is the cause of most chronic diseases and causes the largest portion of disability and mortality. In the UK, the population of people aged over 75 is expected to double over the next 30 years, while in Israel, the 2015 elderly population of 833,000 is expected to double by 2035.
But ageing is not an issue limited only to the UK and Israel. According to the World Health Organisation, the global population of people aged 60+ years is expected to increase from 605 million to two billion between 2000 and 2050, making ageing-related diseases the most pressing health challenge of our time.
