Centre of Excellence on Ageing logo and Centre of Excellence on Ageing logo

Research expertise

Surrey has a proud history of interdisciplinary teaching, research and innovation in the field of healthy ageing across the life course. The Centre of Excellence on Ageing (CEA) will bring all this together to further strengthen our impact.

Our research themes

Representing the long-standing and more recent research strengths in healthy ageing from across the University of Surrey, as well as the technology and outreach modes by which to apply them to generate impactful outcomes, the CEA is made up of four thematic areas:

  • Healthy ageing/ageing well
  • Tackling inequalities in ageing
  • Technologies for ageing and generative AI
  • Policy and community engagement

The CEA’s four thematic areas are expected to develop in both scope and number, as the CEA itself develops. All four themes are interconnected in representing the wealth of research, partnership-based collaboration, funding activities, and outreach that Surrey staff have historically pursued across the spectrum of health ageing. 

In bringing together concepts of healthy ageing alongside tackling ageing-related inequalities, the CEA makes clear its determination to simultaneously identify the positives of ageing on the one side, while prompting a shift in mindsets regarding entrenched attitudes to ageing on the other. ‘Solutions to ageing’ that focus on the longevity divided are therefore represented via Surrey research and work with its collaborative partners into innovative technologies supporting healthy ageing (including generative AI) and outward-facing, impactful engagement with decision-makers in the policy world, and via community engagement. 

Taken together, the sum total of the CEA’s four key themes represents an approach that recognises both the demographics of ageing, and individual longevity, as relevant, societal positives, to be supported through its outputs.

Our existing areas of expertise

The creation of the Centre for Excellence on Ageing builds on a solid track-record of high quality ageing related research and activities at the University of Surrey. As outlined below, the CEA’s centre-specific prowess draws upon the in-built expertise built up across all three faculties, with key groups and individuals leading in innovative areas.

>300 research proposals

Submitted since 2019

More than £17M

In ageing research funding has been awarded to Surrey since 2019