BusinessLab Launches GBP 1 Million Research Programme into Active Ageing

BusinessLab, one of the country's leading change management consultancies, today launches ActiveAge, a new research programme designed to examine the role of technology in helping to address the key strategic challenges of an ageing population.

Over the last 35 years the number of people aged over 65 in the UK has grown by a staggering 31 per cent, from 7.4 to 9.7 million, while the over 85's have grown to a record 1.2 million. From healthcare to mobility, this growing older population will place new and specific demands on service providers from both the public and private sectors. Gregor Rae, Chairman and founding director of BusinessLab said: "The Baby Boomer generation has radically changed markets over the last 60 years - from fashion to finance and from music to medicine. The Boomers are now changing the way we think about old age. They are living and working longer and their demands for personalised services and products are far greater. Some organisations may consider this a threat, and indeed many organisations will not be able to move fast enough to meet these changing demands, but the ActiveAge partners see the ageing phenomenon as a new market opportunity."

ActiveAge is a three-year collaborative research programme that will run until 2010. The programme has been sponsored by a consortium of leading public and private sector organisations in Scotland and England including BT, Communities Scotland, Codeworks, The essentiagroup, NESTRANS and Scottish Enterprise. Several large corporations and government agencies are discussing how they can get involved. Once fully subscribed, ActiveAge will represent a total research investment of around £1million. Most recently Cels joined ActiveAge as the Strategic Research Partner, providing the project with a hub in North East England.

Mike Nicholds, Director Science & Technology at Cels commented, "It is particularly appropriate that Newcastle has become a hub for the ActiveAge programme. Like ActiveAge, our perspective is global and Newcastle University's Institute for Ageing and Health as well as Cels's Assistive Technology Laboratory (ATL) are recognized leaders in researching and developing solutions specifically for an ageing population. And, as a Science City, Newcastle provides an extremely effective life sciences network for international corporate partners to engage with leading government and academic agencies to apply and test new ideas."

The ActiveAge programme will bring together experts from the public and private sectors and from academia to co-develop strategies and share technologies to help organisations respond effectively to the health, wellbeing and independent living needs of an increasingly older population.

The launch of ActiveAge will be marked with a summit this Thursday in Newcastle that will focus on 'Wellbeing', one of four themes within the programme. The other themes are Mobility, Workplace and Community. Experts will gather to discuss how healthcare providers around the world are blending innovative strategies with existing technologies to provide health and wellbeing services efficiently.

The ActiveAge Mobility theme will also launch this Thursday with a dinner in Newcastle being chaired by Peter Cockhead, formerly Director of NESTRANS, Scotland's pathfinder transport partnership and external assessor at Newcastle University.

Gregor Rae of BusinessLab adds, "This is undeniably the most important programme we have created at BusinessLab. For those involved in health and wellbeing, transport and mobility the ageing phenomenon simply cannot be ignored. What was acceptable in terms of products and services for older people even five years ago, won't cut the mustard over the next five.

For those businesses and those governments that recognise this and see the opportunity ? there can be a huge dividend. For those that don't, like the British car industry of the 1970s, they will be left behind in the tail lights of those who do understand what the market wants and are applying technology effectively to deliver it."

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