The European population is ageing rapidly: its median age is already the highest in the world and the proportion of people aged 65 and older is forecast to increase from 21% in 2024 to 35% in 2050. In the coming years, Europe will face dramatic demographic challenges, a rapidly growing pandemic of diseases, higher dependency ratios, rising healthcare costs, and economic shifts. Age-related diseases e.g., cardiovascular diseases, neurodegeneration or type 2 diabetes and cancer are a growing concern worldwide. Their incidence increases with population ageing affecting millions of people with an enormous burden on their families and healthcare systems. Thus, governments, health organizations and research institutions need to ramp up efforts to understand why and how we age and leverage the latest advances in biomedicine to develop new strategies for limiting age-related decline and extending healthspan.
The University of Crete (UoC), starting from modest origins, has become a globally recognized institution, ranking among the top 100 universities under 50 years by the QS World University Rankings. A key contributor to its acclaim is its research impact. The last two decades, owing to substantial EU funding, the UoC Medical School and the School of Sciences and Engineering have significantly enhanced their research capabilities and biomedical infrastructure. These investments have empowered research labs, driven scientific progress, and improved healthcare outcomes.
Nevertheless, biomedical research, such as research on ageing and age-related diseases presents significant hurdles for underperforming EU member states. The challenges include e.g., the complexity of modelling human diseases, limited expertise and equipment, training deficiencies, costly tools and insufficient access to skilled personnel. Combined with a fragmented research landscape, funding limitations and evolving regulations, these issues have significantly hindered sustainable research and innovation (R&I) activities on-site.
To address these timely and pressing needs, UoC aims to recruit and fully integrate a prominent ERA Chair i.e., Prof. Dr. Björn Schumacher, with world renowned science and management expertise on ageing research. Prof. Dr. Schumacher is the Director of the Institute for Genome Stability in Ageing and Diseases at CECAD, the University of Cologne. The ERA Chair holder will build the interdisciplinary research program -“RACE”- as a physical unit of excellence aimed at maximizing the competences, capacities and expertise of UoC on ageing research and longevity assurance mechanisms in health and disease (Figure 1). The RACE team will capitalize on UoC state-of-the-art infrastructure, human capital and expertise to address a major research topic with great health-related and socioeconomic impact that will build upon a well-structured, multi-disciplinary research program.
To ensure the seamless transition into the next phase, RACE will establish the following measurable, verifiable and realistically achievable objectives with significant spill over effects for the wider region:
Objective 1. Recruit and fully integrate the ERA Chair appointee and the RACE team: UoC will carefully consider the needs and recommendations of ERA Chair designate to establish an interdisciplinary research team on ageing and longevity.
Objective 2. Advance the research capacity of UoC on ageing research: RACE aims to boost the research output and innovation potential of UoC by establishing a cutting-edge program on ageing research.
Objective 3. Strengthen human capital base through training and international mobility: The program aims to offer training and encourage international mobility for early-stage researchers (ESRs), postdoctoral scientists, and UoC staff members. This initiative is designed to contribute to the development of a highly skilled workforce equipped with both fundamental research and soft skill competencies.
Objective 4. Increase competitive funding and reverse brain drain for sustained development: RACE will expand research networks, promote the participation in funding calls, and spark high-quality proposals to attract inter(national) funding and create attractive career opportunities;
Objective 5. Foster innovation at UoC through the establishment of industry partnerships and the promotion of entrepreneurship.
Objective 6. Strengthen the management and administrative skills of UoC to meet the challenges of fundraising and complex project management in science;
Objective 7. Optimize returns from existing EU-funded infrastructures, and connect with regional R&I centres: RACE will orchestrate its efforts to build upon available EU-funded facilities on site, leverage on UoC state-of-art infrastructure and establish interactions with local R&I institutions;
Objective 8. Raise reputation of UoC through a wide range of dissemination and outreach activities targeted at the academic, private and public sectors.
RACE is an ambitious program that goes well beyond the state-of-art to rectify disparities in R&I performance, human talent, research funds, and operational skills. The program will play a pivotal role in effectively closing the workforce gaps and elevating translational research standards at the UoC. Crucially, RACE aligns seamlessly with the National Smart Specialisation Policy (2021-2027; Sector: Biosciences, Health and Medicines) in Greece and the Regional Smart Specialisation Policy of Crete (2021-2027, Sector: Effective Health and Well-being).