IfADo part of the new Leibniz Research Alliance Resilient Ageing

How can people remain healthy into old age and continue to take part in the life of society? In view of demographic trends, this is a highly relevant challenge in terms of health science and socioeconomics. Until now, ageing research in Germany has concentrated on understanding and treating diseases associated with ageing. By contrast, the Leibniz Research Alliance on Resilient Ageing takes a health-oriented view, pursuing a paradigm shift towards researching mechanisms that will allow people to remain as functionally healthy as possible, despite advancing ageing processes, so that they can continue to play a part in life physically, mentally and socially into old age. In doing so, it is pursuing a paradigm shift towards investigating mechanisms of how people remain functionally healthy enough to participate in life physically, psychologically and socially into old age despite progressive ageing processes.

The concept of resilient ageing comes from psycho-social ageing research and is used in the sense of optimal or successful ageing. The concept is expanded here as a dynamic process to include a biological-mechanistic level. A core aspect of the research initiative is the identification of mechanisms of resilience and functionally adaptive or maladaptive reactions to stressors during ageing. The investigation of so-called resilience mechanisms in old age focuses on phenomena of adaptive plasticity and metabolic processes.

The new Leibniz Research Alliance on Resilient Ageing combines the expertise of 15 Leibniz partner institutes from three sections of the Leibniz Association to develop and implement a strong interdisciplinary and cooperative research agenda for ageing. With the help of a joint analysis platform, the highly complex research data from a wide variety of areas at the institutes will be brought together and made usable. The Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors in Dortmund (IfADo) contributes its expertise in the field of occupational medicine and multidisciplinary ageing research to the network. Particular importance is attached to chemical and physical factors of the ageing process and age-related diseases, as well as the effects of cognitive changes in comparison to the living/working environment.