This short film is a co-production with Reuben &Co (and animations by Camille Aubry) arising from The Sciences of Ageing and the Culture of Youth (SAACY). SAACY project partners featuring in this film are Age UK, Brixton Windmill, Centre for Ageing Better, and InCommon. Rethinking Ageing was filmed on location, at Lambeth Town Assembly Hall, in November 2024.
Category Archives: Public Engagement
Shifting Representations of Ageing in the Media
Our second SAACY Policy Report, Shifting Representations of Ageing in Advertising, the Media, and the Creative Industries, is published! We identify opportunity for media content to be more intergenerational, and for it to be developed by age-diverse teams, and we list systemic opportunities for change, drawing upon regulation, funding, data and education-based strategies. The report was launched in the House of Lords on 13 May 2025, hosted by The Rt Hon. The Lord Foulkes of Cumnock, co-chair of the APPG for Ageing and Older People.
Lifelines: Rethinking Ageing across Generations
A free exhibition at Science Gallery London, invites people of all ages to consider ageing as a lifelong process, rather than a phase of decline that happens towards the end of life. Open 29 May until 2 August 2025.
Offering an open space for conversations across generations and complete with film, objects, photographs and animations highlighting our shared human experiences, Lifelines prompts the visitor to address how inequalities impact health and quality of life in older age, and to consider what we can learn from one another. It assures us that together, we can creatively rethink ageing, embracing and preparing for the challenges, joys, and surprises of getting older.
SAACY at InCommon
Delighted to have been invited to speak at an InCommon Lunch and Learn event about the Policy Report, Shifting How We View the Ageing Process, which summarises the Themes for Actions and Next Steps explored during a Policy Lab held in the framework of my research programme on The Sciences of Ageing and the Culture of Youth, funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship.
Foundation Future Leaders 2024
Delighted to have been accepted on the Foundation Future Leaders programme 2024 organised by the Foundation of Science and Technology. The programme brings together a cohort of around 30 mid-career professionals, with ten representatives each from the research community, industry and the public sector, including the civil service.
SAACY at Age UK
Delighted to have been invited to speak at the Age UK Influencing Division Briefing about the Policy Report, Shifting How We View the Ageing Process, which summarises the Themes for Actions and Next Steps explored during a Policy Lab held in the framework of my research programme on The Sciences of Ageing and the Culture of Youth, funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship.
SAACY at Centre for Ageing Better
Delighted to have been invited to speak at Ageing Better Headquarters about our Policy Report, Shifting How We View the Ageing Process. The Report summarises findings from the one-day workshop that explored the value, feasibility and acceptability of shifting how we view the ageing process. The Report’s goal is to achieve attitudinal change to ageing, by moving away from a narrative of disease and decline towards the idea that ageing is a lifelong process of change.
Shifting How We View the Ageing Process
As part of The Sciences of Ageing and the Culture of Youth, we had run a Policy Lab together with the Policy Institute at King’s in Autumn 2022. The one-day workshop had brought together academic researchers from a range of disciplines, practicing clinicians, people with lived experience and representatives from the care sector, charities and the policy world to explore how valuable, feasible and acceptable it would be to shift how we view the ageing process. Read the full Policy Report here.
Making Ageing and Dementia Studies Matter outside the Academy
At the 8th Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellows Conference, one of the panels focused on ‘Developing careers in the arts and humanities’. I contributed with a presentation that explored tensions between research, and impact and engagement activities, based on my experiences of currently running a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship funded research programme on ageing, The Sciences of Ageing and the Culture of Youth.
Older Adults’ Perspectives, Experiences and Expectations of Ageing in England
Here’s the grounded theory study protocol of the ongoing sociological investigation that is part of the SAACY research programme. Our study invites adults aged 50-80 years old with different backgrounds and experiences to take part in interviews and focus groups to explore and discuss what ageing means to them. ‘Older adults’ perspectives, experiences, and expectations of ageing in England: A grounded theory study protocol’ is published in the open access journal Social Science Protocols, hosted by Edinburgh Diamond.
Martina Zimmermann 