Work underway on Ageing and Vitality campus
Dec 24 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal
IN NEWCASTLE’S West End, work is under way to develop a centre of research, development and commerce to make life easier for the elderly worldwide.
On the city’s General Hospital site, representatives from the worlds of academia, medicine and business will forge an international hub for research into health and ageing.
Last week Newcastle University received £2.6m in European funding to continue its plan to create the four-storey Campus for Ageing and Vitality.
The £15m facility will look to improve the understanding and diagnosis of older patients whose treatment is often complicated by multiple medical conditions.
It will also look to uncover the biological factors driving the ageing process, such as the lifelong accumulation of damage to chromosomes and will support detailed study of how nutrition affects people later in life.
It could also prove the catalyst for the growth of a lucrative industry for technology firms in the region.
Newcastle Science City’s chief executive, Peter Arnold, said: “Science is going to play a crucial role in helping us develop the solutions to ease the health, financial and social burdens experts believe will accompany an ageing population.
“However, with those challenges comes potential, and hopefully where the research leads, commercial and societal opportunities will follow.
“That’s why the Campus for Ageing and Vitality is so important – it will be a hub around which researchers and business leaders will gather to see how the science can be converted into economic gain for the region.
“It’s an exciting development that puts Newcastle at the heart of a science that is of vital importance all over the world.”
As the North East prepares for the dawn of a potentially-huge industry, we look at organisations in the region that have already used their technological expertise to help make life easier for the elderly.
Researchers at the Digital Economy Research Hub, at Newcastle University, are using a £12m grant from the UK Research Council to develop technology that could help vulnerable people access the advantages of an increasingly digital world.
Newcastle Science City, which helps the city capitalise on scientific innovation, has endorsed the hub’s work as a valuable social and economic driver for the region.
Work at the hub includes the development of an ‘ambient kitchen’ which can sense when a user – perhaps suffering from Alzheimer’s – is getting into difficulty offering prompts to correct the situation.
The team is also working on a music-making project to help teach youngsters transferable computing and business skills.
The hub aims to pioneer technology that could be commercialised to help large numbers of people.
