Healthy ageing communications campaign gets €1m in EU funding

28 Nov 2012

A new campaign to focus on communicating health-related scientific research around ageing has been awarded €1m by the European Commission. The campaign will use film, social media and smartphone apps, with the aim of raising public awareness around current research into cognitive ageing and dementia.

The campaign, A Sharing Approach to Promoting Science (ASAPS), will be co-ordinated by Dr Sabina Brennan of Trinity College Dublin’s (TCD) Institute of Neuroscience in Dublin. A research psychologist, Brennan is the scientific research development manager at NEIL, the Neuro-Enhancement for Independent Lives programme that’s run at TCD.

Over the next two years the campaign will use a variety of mediums to communicate news about ageing research.

The consortium will include Irish communications agency Red Dog, media production company 360 Production, digital creative agency Big Motive and AGE Platform Europe. The latter is a European network of 160 organisations for people who are over 50 years of age.

“We want to share important and relevant scientific information about ageing in an interactive way that will encourage individuals to log on, click and share,” said Brennan.

“Cognitive ageing is a global challenge that has real relevance for everyone. European citizens deserve to be aware of and benefit from the research that is being conducted on their behalf,” she added.

Age-related cognitive decline is associated with increased risk of dementia and higher healthcare costs. In Ireland, the current cost of dementia healthcare services is estimated to be €1.69bn, while in Europe the cost is estimated to be €160bn.

The funding for the ASAPS project has been awarded by the European Commission under its Seventh Framework FP7 programme.

Older people on laptop image via Shutterstock

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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