Healthy Ageing Competition
A new competition for businesses launched by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will help to develop services which meet the needs of people as they age by  providing grants of up to £2 million from a £14 million fund.

The Designed for Ageing competition is inviting businesses to demonstrate that projects and services have been co-designed with the people who are going to use them. This will help ensure that winning projects are fit for purpose, scaleable and meet the challenge objectives.

The aims of the competition are to create more and better services which support people as they age to remain active, independent and socially connected and to support business-led, near-to-market innovations that have potential to scale.

It also wants to encourage applications from businesses across the UK, by working with devolved government administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

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Julia Glenn, Design Innovation Lead at UKRI said: “Despite more of us living for longer and wanting to choose how to live in later life, the market for products and services which genuinely meet the needs of older people is fairly underdeveloped. Designing for Ageing needs to think beyond comfortable shoes and stairlifts.

“We need to address the proper design of flexible life choices for older people, of financial services beyond pensions and see that ageing is a continuum, not a boundary line. That’s why real co-design is so important and why we have built this as a requirement into this competition.”

The competition opens closes on 17 November. Businesses and partners can apply for up to £2 million in funding and they should be able to demonstrate that they plan to deliver a clear game-changing service-led innovation that has a significant impact on ageing positively in the UK.

UKRI have stated that the aim of the competition to help people as they age, allowing them to remain active, productive, independent and socially connected for as long as possible.

Businesses can apply for the competition through the Innovation Funding Service.

Earlier this year UKRI announced that it will be spending nearly £11 million on healthy ageing research projects to help bring about home improvements for older people so that they can remain independent for longer.

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