Good practice:

Interdisciplinary Research Platform Ageing and Wellbeing

Research in health, care and welfare has become a key priority in the European agenda. Through the Interdisciplinary Research Platform on Ageing and Wellbeing, the University of Deusto is addressing these challenges and opportunities, by promoting interdisciplinary approaches and cross-sectoral collaborations with other relevant stakeholders, including local and regional authorities.

The Interdisciplinary Research Platform on Ageing and Wellbeing gathers researchers from various departments and schools within the University, coming together to share ideas and develop new projects to advance research in Active and Healthy Ageing.

The platform aims at promoting interdisciplinary research, based on the strengths of the different teams and individual researchers, as well as on the social needs that have been identified both locally and internationally. A growing critical mass of researchers is thus working together in the promotion of active, healthy, and meaningful ageing and in identifying innovative solutions and alternatives to the problems and opportunities raised by demographic change.

The target population consists of DEUSTO researchers from different knowledge areas who are somehow working on themes related to health and wellbeing. At the same time, the platform connects with stakeholders from different sectors at the regional, national and international levels.

As mentioned before, the platform is coordinated by the International Research Projects Office (IRPO) of University of Deusto. In this office, two people are directly involved with the related work: The Director of the Office and a Senior Research Advisor.

The work has resulted in the participation of University of Deusto in a number of International Research Projects and created synergies both at the intra- and inter-institutional levels. The platform has delivered research with special impact on:

A. More active and healthy ageing society
B. Inclusion of the elderly in society
C. Development of new products and services for a more competitive
Silver Economy
D. Innovative integrated care services and policies
E. Better health care

The existing resistance of universities’ compartmentalised and fixed structures (faculties, departments, research teams) was a challenge encountered in the process as well as the traditional separation between knowledge areas.

The Interdisciplinary Research Platform on Ageing and Wellbeing platform acted as a pilot initiative upon which four more platforms, addressing other problems (Gender, Social Participation, Social Justice andSocial Innovation) were later developed. As Caro-Gonzalez (2019), explains: “once piloted and based on lessons learned, regular general platform meetings were introduced successively over the other interdisciplinary platforms, adjusting
the content and dynamics for each specific context and field...envisaged as cohesion tools, these meetings facilitated spaces for exchanging ideas, networking and planning between platform members” (p. 108).