News & Events
Our First UKHAIC Networking Event: A Resounding Success
In January, we were thrilled to welcome over 100 attendees to our first annual UKHAIC Networking Event at Nottingham Trent University’s Clifton campus. The event brought together a dynamic mix of academics, early career researchers, technical professionals, and representatives from industry, city councils, charities, funders, and healthcare.
Dr McLean, NTU Director of the Consortium, opened the event with an introduction to UKHAIC, setting the stage for a series of engaging flash presentations. These provided valuable insights into our three transversal research themes and highlighted perspectives on healthy ageing from industry leaders, funders, and Nottingham City Council.
The day featured a range of interactive networking sessions, enabling attendees to forge new connections and strengthen existing collaborations. Lively discussions explored key challenges in healthy ageing and potential solutions, generating actionable ideas to pursue in upcoming funding opportunities—including the UKHAIC’s FTMA funding call, set to launch later this year.
Professor Richard Emes, NTU’s Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and International, newly appointed Chair of the Researcher Development Concordat Strategy Group, and Chair of the UKHAIC Governance Board, closed the event with reflections on its success. He emphasized the critical role of interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration in tackling global challenges.
Speaking on behalf of UKHAIC, Project Manager, Raj Crossley added:
“As our inaugural networking event, we were thrilled by the overwhelming interest from both academia and industry, as well as representatives from NHS Trusts and local councils. This resounding response underscores the critical importance of such gatherings. These events serve as invaluable platforms for bringing together industry leaders, innovators, and researchers to nurture the knowledge transfer of ideas, enabling individuals to gain unique insights and connect with those they might not otherwise encounter.
We are actively seeking partnerships with industry to drive progress, leveraging our world-class facilities, academic expertise, and access to unique funding opportunities that may not be readily available to businesses independently.”
“We want to emphasise that as a university, one of our key priorities is working with industry to create impact through commercialisation and innovation.”
Hua Zhong, Associate Professor at London South Bank University, a recipient of FTMA funding stated:
“It is very challenging to access big funding in the current economic climate, but we can use a small funding to build up evidence, which may consequently bring us to the next stage with bigger funding. So, this kind of small funding pilot project is actually very helpful.
The funding will be used across an across interdisciplinary project with three universities and one industrial partner to analyse air pollution data based on the AI technology and its impact on elderly people to create a benchmark for the air pollution level and give an indicator for those living and designing the building environment.”
Rebecca Stokes – Director of Research Strategy and Operations, NTU commented:
“As is the case with many Grand Challenges, healthy ageing requires a multi-disciplinary approach to develop and deliver viable solutions, that take cutting edge science right through to practical application – the ambition of the UK Healthy Ageing Innovation Consortium is to do just that.
Our programme included a great mixture of activities including Flash Talks, Insight Exchange Activities, Thematic Discussions, Posters and Tours, as well as a session to start developing collaborative project ideas.”
We look forward to our next UKHAIC Networking Event in July at Northumbria University. To stay informed about this and other consortium opportunities, ensure you are signed up as a UKHAIC member!
Details of our next event to be announced soon!
We will be announcing the date of our next event shortly. Please sign up to our mailing list to stay up to date for information on our events, training and funding!
You must be a member of the consortium to sign up to our networking event, you can join here.