age uk
TRANSCRIPT
Age UK Research
Matthew NortonMonday 11th September 2012
The Age UK Group
Mission – to improve the lives of older people
• A social enterprise and a charity• Five areas of activity (‘Pillars’)• 3000 employees• 50,000 volunteers• Turnover £160m + Brand Partners £140m (Total £300m;
2010-11) • There are over 200,000 charities in the UK and some much
bigger than us!!
The 5 pillars
Health and Well-being
Home and Care
Travel and Leisure
Money Matters
Work and Learning
Research for Later Life (Age UK Research)
Overall aim - to produce research solutions for an ageing population by:
• Funding and commissioning
‘Research into Ageing’ (Health & Well-being)
Social and Economic research
Services and evaluation research
• Translating research findings to produce an evidence base for policy, practice, products and services (including market research)
• Developing mutually beneficial research relationships at all levels
Why we need effective research now
The Cornwall Lecture
6
Why we need effective research now
• 1 year of additional woe for every year of life gained
• Less than 1 year of additional woe for one year of life gained
• No additional woe for each year of life gained • Less woe despite life gained: Fries’ ‘Compression
of morbidity’
Our research is widely recognised for its effectiveness
Age UK Research Effectiveness
Development of the DWP ageing strategy in ‘Opportunity Age’ (2005)
Development of the Social Exclusion Units strategy in ‘A Sure Start to Later Life’ (2006)
Development of treatment for reducing post-event inflammation in thrombotic stroke (2009)
Changes to the diagnosis and treatment of urinary incontinence (2010)
Removal of the default retirement age (2011) Care in Crisis Campaign (2012)
Examples of Age UK ResearchEffectiveness
The Team
Head of Research – James Goodwin
Knowledge Management
Manager:Phil Rossall
Research into Ageing Fund
Manager: Libby Archer
Social and Economic Research
Manager:Matthew Norton
Knowledge Hub
Professional Resources about issues, projects, and information on older people
–Evidence, research, statistics, and information about older people and the older population
Later Life 2012
National and International Trends:Later Life in 100 slides
Prepared by Age UK Research Department
For source information, see the Later Life factsheets in the Age UK Knowledge Hub http://www.ageuk.org.uk/professional-resources-home/knowledge-hub-evidence-statistics/
New Infographics site (in development)•Economic Dashboard – get the latest economic indicators every quarter•Maps of ageing•Time-series spreadsheet – range of socio-economic indicator data in one place•Infographics summarising data on individual topics•New illustrated factsheets
The definitive road map for ageing research in Europe
• Two year project (2009 - 2011)• To create the definitive road map for ageing research in Europe for the next 10-15 years• The most extensive consultation ever conducted in this field• Identify the main priorities on ageing and health from a multi-disciplinary perspective• Build on consensus between key stakeholders
Aim: To produce recommendations for the EC age research agenda
FP 8 (2013)
Research Priorities
• Oldest old (and centenarians)• Health of older people
• Dementia (largely funded elsewhere)• Frailty• Obesity• Variations in outcomes• Age Discrimination
• Variations in health care• Assistive living technology / Digital Inclusion• Social care (particularly to support campaigning)• Work and employment transitions in later life• Pensions• Intergenerational contact / conflict / fairness
Grant-funded research programmeManager: Libby Archer (on the left!)What?Through the Research into Ageing Fund, we fund external research projects that aim to improve later life.
How?We run competitive grant rounds to identify the best quality ageing research in the UK to fund within our remit.
Key developmentIn 2010, the Trustees decided a revised direction and emphasis for the programme for the future.
The Awards
We normally invite applications for grants once a year, for one or more of the following types of award:
• PhD Studentships
• Research Fellowships
• Senior Research Fellowships
• Clinical Research Fellowships
• Research project grants
• New Investigator awards
We publish detailed eligibility criteria for the type(s) of award(s) on offer at the time of calling for grant applications.
FIAF process
Expressions of Interest in the first instance. These are assessed by our Research Advisory Council (RAC)
All full applications are reviewed by a target of three independent referees in line with AMRC guidelines and are evaluated for overall merit by the RAC.
Fellowship candidates are shortlisted after the full application stage for interview with the RAC.
The RAC ultimately recommends grant awards to the Age UK Trustees’ Board for decision.
We publish timetables and deadlines for the process together with full guidance for applicants at the time of calling for applications.
Grant-funded research programmeImplementation
Working with the Research Advisory Council and Brendan McCormack in 2011, the revised direction and emphasis was worked up in depth for implementation through revised policies and remit for future grant rounds.
The grant round will support the Health and Wellbeing pillar.
First grant round under this remit launched November 2011.
Additional expertise co-opted to Research Advisory Council to advise on this grant round. Brendan is observing the whole process.
£1,000,000 has been committed to this grant round.
Note – grant rounds take 9 months to complete and take place in 2 main stages.
Grant-funded researchprogrammeOutcomes to date
Wider remit has been welcomed by many people in the research community.Wider remit has attracted first stage outline applications in a wider range of health and wellbeing research than ever before.It has captured a wider range of gerontological research approaches into the programme.The number of outline applications received at first stage is an all-time record – 272 (2010: 164).Outline applications have been assessed by the RAC.42 have been selected to go to the next, full application stage (the maximum that is sensible given the level of budget available).
11 were funded by the Research Advisory Committee.
Outcome – Funded research
Of the 272 submitted the RAC decided that only 11 were fundable (achieving a score of 12.5 / 16):
2 Fellowships
1 Clinical Fellowship
8 PhDs
Including: 3 on skin / wound healing dementia; older workers in construction sector; sex in later life; delirium; using pre-operative comprehensive geriatric assessment to improve outcomes after vascular surgery; early diagnosis of cognitive impairment; and constipation
Remit of the round changed, but still no social or behavioural science
RIAF 2013
Remit is to support Health and well-being pillar
Integral part of Age UK fundraising strategy
RIAF still under review as part of a wider review of Age UK research strategy
• Announcement for next round in Spring 2013
• Higher quality translational research – particularly social and behavioural science
Social Research ProgrammeManager: Matthew NortonFocused on meeting policy and service delivery objectives under 5 pillars
Commission Research: modest budget
16 projects in 2010/11, 12 in 2011/12
‘In-house’ analysis
Contribute to Policy / Campaign strategy and service delivery
Work with Academics to use their research to create impact
Social Research Highlights
Care in Crisis 2012£4,000 for underpinning analysisFurther analysis ‘in-house’Additional campaigning and media workLarge media and political impact
Living on a low income in later life£40,000Description of the daily struggle for older people on low
incomeSubstantial media coverage – raise awareness / support
campaigning
Social Research Highlights
Health Outcomes for older people• Major investment
~£200,000 over 3 years• Age UK as leader on trends
in health in later life• Underpin policy work and
service development• Launch at IFA in May 2012
Social Research highlights
Economic Monitor• In house project lead by
Chief Economist• Age UK as authority on
economic issues related to older people – non-economist audience
• Underpin policy work and service development
• Launch at Party Conferences 2012
Social Research in 2012 / 13
Projects already planned: • Debt and older people• Social Care: From needs to outcomes• Health Outcomes in Later Life 2013
• Focus on oldest old• PLINY: RCT on befriending• Modelling auto-enrolment in pensions• NISER modelling of pensions looking at impact on saving of different scenarios
Knowledge Management ProgrammeManager: Phil Rossall
Focus on building the evidence base for the Age UK Charity, Group and partners
Emphasis April 2011 onwards on outputs:
• publications• events• professional website
Spreading good practice on use of evidencethroughout Age UK
Ensuring accuracy of external messages
Building Age UK reputation as centre for expertiseand knowledge on ageing
Knowledge Management Highlights
Outputs and activity:
•Knowledge Hub on professional pages of external website, including live updating, expert articles (5) and regular blogs
•Generic fact sheets (regularly used by media, fundraising etc) and presentations e.g. 100-slide Later Life presentation
•Improving Later Life book
•Co-production of accessible research summaries: Evidence Reviews (2) and Expert Series (7)
•Setting up new Resource Centre in Tavis House
Knowledge Management Highlights
•Establishment and dissemination of Policy and research e-bulletin (10 editions so far)•5 Expert Briefing events, including 2 external research launch events•External talks on the older population (2)•Local authority statistics tool for Influencing Consortium, plus support for partners•Research support for publications e.g. Agenda for Later Life, literature search and research support service, participation in special projects e.g. support for International team in Bosnia and Serbia•Support/ quality control for media and web editorial teams (daily) and fundraising, Enterprises etc (regular)
Knowledge Management Highlights
Other ongoing activity and plans:
•Planning sequel to Improving Later Life book (current)•Extending Knowledge Hub web pages to include maps, visualisations and infographics (started March 2012)•Fourth Age project (summary of 85+ population) ongoing, report late 2012•New materials for Influencing Consortium (maps and data) for Summer 2012
Partnerships
Working with academic institutions / funders to:
• Establish funding priorities (E.g Dementia / BIG lottery etc)
• Priorities topics for research (individual projects)
• Design research
• Deliver
• E.g. TSB funded COBALT project / PLINY RCT
• Advise
• Implement and disseminate
• Patient and Public Involvement
We are both proactive and reactive to research proposals / funding calls
• Welcome approaches from academics
