KT-EQUAL
Out with the old in with the new
Funding for SPARC finished at the end of December 2008. We are now in transition to KT-EQUAL, a new project designed specifically to exploit a decade of investment by EPSRC in ageing and disability research. EPSRC’s EQUAL initiative showed that by keeping researchers close to research users and beneficiaries as well as ensuring that that they were networked to policy makers, major improvements, locally and nationally, could be achieved very quickly. EQUAL has had a significant influence on official regulations, standards, good practice and, importantly, expectations about the quality of the built environment, about the design of products and systems, and about the support which information technologies can provide to older and disabled people, in good and in poor health.
Growing confidence
Through the EQUAL Network and more recently SPARC (funded jointly by EPSRC and BBSRC), researchers throughout the UK have become familiar with the realities of growing older, frailty and disability. They know that these do not respect the boundaries of the scientific disciplines. Seeking out solutions, improving quality of life and wellbeing, requires multidisciplinary research teams, engagement with the many organisations and agencies which work with older and disabled people, and recognising the preferences, knowledge and expertise of older and disabled people and their carers.
Over the last seven years, EQUAL and SPARC have introduced many new scientists to the exciting challenges of ageing research, and have secured their long-term commitment to the area. They have helped to build a superb rapport across many different communities of stakeholders and interest groups, by showing that ageing and disability research can and does make a difference to the lives of people. This has resulted in an incredible level of support, interest and encouragement in this next stage of getting research into practice.
