Dr Beatrice Lucaroni, Project Officer for "Human Development and Ageing" of the Health Programme in the current 7th Framework Programme, presented a talk focusing on ageing research.  She emphasized that collaboration between countries is crucial in this area, both within Europe and globally.  Research on ageing is quite a young field in the EU, but after 30 years of study in ageing research, it has become obvious that multidisciplinarity is absolutely essential in this field.

Dr Lucaroni went on to introduce the FP7 Programme, which includes projects such as Chronic Disease Research (ATPBone), Public Health Research (CHANCES) and Human Development and Ageing (PREDICT).  Although the latter is a relatively small project, it is very important because it focuses for the first time on the area of understanding the participation of the elderly in clinical trials. 

Finally, Dr Lucaroni talked about the European Innovation Partnership: Active and Healthy Ageing.  Work is still ongoing, but the main challenge of the partnership is to increase the average number of years for healthy independent living by two for every citizen.  This is essential for improving the sustainability and efficiency of our social and healthcare systems.

Dr Lucaroni concluded with the statement that ageing research is the future, and made a plea for experts, particularly geriatricians, to provide their assistance to the project.