Healthy Aging > Collaboration

International Research Collaboration

As a member of IARU (the International Alliance of Research Universities), an alliance between the University of Copenhagen and ten of the leading research universities, the Center for Healthy Aging is already part of a strong international research community.

In 2006, scientists from these universities involved in aging research collaborated to establish a common research project called Aging, Longevity and Health. This project is a component of the larger IARU research programme known as Global Change. Through this common IARU project, researchers at the Center for Healthy Aging are able to have contact with other world-class research environments as well as gain access to valuable, global research data. In addition to this, the Faculty of Health Sciences also has collaborations underway with various groups at the National Institute of Aging, at the National Institute of Health (NIH), USA.

An important milestone for the Center is to engage promising, young researchers from across the world through exchange programmes for PhD students, post-docs, and junior research staff, as well as through hosting international workshops and Summer Schools.

On the global scale, there is considerable and rising interest in aging research. Across the planet, we have experienced a significant prolongation of life in recent generations, which has lead to an increase in the occurrence of age-related diseases, such as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and cardiovascular diseases. These age-related diseases put an enormous burden on our societies, increasing the need to understand how to prevent disease and to improve the quality of life for the individual as he or she ages.

The Center for Healthy Aging places both the University of Copenhagen and Danish researchers squarely on the world map as significant international collaborators, working together with other centers in the US, western Europe, and those now under development in south-east Asia.