Healthy Ageing

The chances of ageing healthily have never been better. Rapid medical advances in particular mean that average life expectancy has been increasing continuously over the past 100 years and it is expected to increase even further in the future. The development of preventive medicine and the early diagnosis of numerous diseases are important for healthy ageing. This applies in particular to dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Life expectancy has been rising steadily for several decades and is increasingly accompanied by an improvement in the quality of life in old age. Both factors are due primarily to a steady improvement in health care. Nevertheless, serious diseases such as dementia, Parkinson's, cardio-vascular diseases, depression and cancer continue to affect a large number of older people. This means that in the future too only very few people will be able to enjoy the last phase of their lives independently and in good health. Many of today's over-60-year olds are chronically ill or suffer from various diseases. The majority of older people therefore rely on medical or nursing care and on a large number of different types of medication or therapies.

The demands on medical treatment and care are rising steadily, not least due to the demographic change in our society. This is why the corresponding fields of research and development are making an increased effort to find new, effective and practicable approaches for enabling people to lead as healthy a life as possible in old age.

In addition to extensive projects on specific diseases, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is therefore targeting its funding towards research projects and collaborations, some of them multi- or interdisciplinary, which deal with the issues of old age. Furthermore, research on issues relevant to old age is firmly embedded as a horizontal issue in the Government's programme on health research.

Better health in old age

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is providing funding for six research collaborations which are dealing with the central challenges of maintaining health in old age. Their focus is on the specific aspects of multimorbidity and the strengthening of health resources and autonomy in old age. The BMBF is providing funds totalling 32 million euros up to the end of 2013. At the same time, the BMBF is participating in the European funding programme FLARE (Future Leaders of Ageing Research in Europe) within the framework of the European Research Area Network on Ageing (ERA-AGE).

Further information on the BMBF's "Health in old age" measure and "FLARE" and on the individual collaborations is available at http://www.gesundheitsforschung-bmbf.de/de/1958.php.

Since 1999, the BMBF has been supporting a total of 21 competence networks in medicine with the aim of enhancing the transfer of results from basic research to clinical research and patient care. Seven of these competence networks deal with diseases that mainly affect older people and pool national expertise in individual disease areas:

Disease-related competence network on degenerative dementias

Building on its experience with the "Medical Competence Networks", the BMBF intends to develop and expand cooperation between outstanding players in research and healthcare on diseases which are particularly important from the point of view of health policy by funding national "disease-related competence networks". It thereby intends to promote the efficiency and interdisciplinary character of clinical research and strengthen Germany's national research profile in health research. The Degenerative Dementias Competence Network will receive funding of approximately 50 million euros over a total period of 12 years.

German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)

The centre, which is headed by the biomedical scientist Pierluigi Nicotera, began its work in spring 2009 and is developing new strategies against Alzheimer's and Parkinson's in particular.

The DZNE has a broad research mission: By analysing the causes of diseases it will reveal new opportunities for early identification and prevention, ways for developing effective therapies and the best forms of treatment and care.

The Centre is working under the umbrella of the Helmholtz Association and was founded with the aim of pooling and strengthening German research in the field of neurodegeneration.

The Centre's central element is its close specialist and spacial links with existing research institutions such as institutions of higher education and teaching hospitals. In addition to its site in Bonn, it also has locations in Munich, Tübingen, Rostock/Greifswald, Witten-Herdecke, Göttingen and Magdeburg. The Centre's annual budget in the final completion stage will total 66 million euros, 90 percent of which will be provided by the BMBF, the remaining 10 percent by the Länder involved.

The BMBF brochure on dementia research (Kampf gegen das Vergessen) provides an overview of important information on the causes of dementia, prevention and forms of treatment.