Today is the 36th United Nations International Day of Older People. The day serves to raise awareness and mobilise action on the issues faced by ageing populations. As a charitable foundation focused entirely on supporting the research and social innovation needed for ageing well, this awareness day is something we at the Vivensa Foundation can really get behind – today and every day.
Dr Amy Roberts (King’s College London) and Dr Loren Kell (University of Oxford) met at a Vivensa Foundation Early Career Researcher event and turned a coffee-break conversation into an ongoing research collaboration. Here, they reflect on what they’re working on, how it started, and why they think events like this matter.
We are delighted to announce that Professor Vicki Goodwin MBE – our 2025 Senior Leader Academy Excellence Award holder – has been appointed Vice President Research and Academic Development at the British Geriatrics Society (BGS). She has been deputy to the current Vice President and takes over in November 2026 – the first Allied Health Professional to take on the role.
Together with the British Geriatrics Society, we funded the MED-AGE undergraduate research placement programme at Queen’s University Belfast. The programme is designed to introduce undergraduate students to ageing-related research over a six-week period, allowing them to develop their interest …
What are the benefits to health, well-being and education when young people link with older people living in care homes?
Dr Claire McDonald is one of two recipients of our 2026 Rising Star Vivensa Academy Excellence Award, alongside Dr Mahmoud Bukar Maina. We speak to her about combining clinical medicine with research, why older people with multiple long‑term conditions shouldn’t be excluded from trials, and how she plans to use her award to build a more inclusive, cross‑disciplinary research ecosystem for ageing.
Professor Nathan Davies is the recipient of our 2026 Senior Leader Vivensa Academy Excellence Award. We spoke to him about leadership rooted in personal values, his plans to build research capacity and his commitment to creating lasting change in the field of ageing research.
We talk to Dr Mahmoud Maina – our 2026 Rising Star in the Vivensa Academy Excellence Awards – about his research spanning two continents.
We talk to the winners of the new ‘Team Achievement’ category in our annual Vivensa Academy Excellence Awards – the Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group (MUARG). Here, members share their approach to co-production, plans for their 10th anniversary celebration and their hopes for the future of the research group.
We are delighted to share the news that Vivensa Foundation is sponsoring Dr Helen Nuttall and Dr Kate Slade’s ‘Drs Confess’ podcast for the next year.
Schenelle Dlima (University of Manchester) offers a view about navigating the final stretch of a PhD – what it takes to finish, and what comes next.
Last week (5/2/26) our CEO Katy Saunders and Senior Grants Manager Oliver Soutar were invited to the House of Lords for a special event hosted by Lord Best. It was the launch of the research report ‘Amar bari, amar jibon (My home, my life): Developing suitable living environments for Bangladeshi elders.’