MIA Teaming project is a partnership between the University of Coimbra, PT (partner in a low-performing country) and the University of Newcastle, UK (partner in a high-performing country) to create, in Coimbra, a new Centre of Excellence in Ageing Research - the Multidisciplinary Institute of Ageing (MIA). The creation of this new Centre of Excellence is being coordinated by the regional authority Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Centro, with the tight collaboration in the operational coordination by University of Coimbra.
The overall objective of MIA is to perform world-class fundamental research in ageing and foster its translation into human interventions, improving health and wellbeing of an ageing population, inspired by the successful international example of the Newcastle University Institute for Ageing (NUIA, UK) and the European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing (ERIBA, The Netherlands). The institute will be based on a World-class research core on biology of ageing, with simultaneously peripheral services and social partnerships that will help to support and give a social meaning to the research.
To understand a complex process like ageing, a multidisciplinary outlook and collaboration between a range of scientific domains will continue to be promoted amongst the partners of MIA Project, as well as inside each institution research groups to foster critical mass creation in the understanding this social critical problem. Additionally, the MIA project aims at converging scientific research and public, patient and local business engagement to bring together, to a Vitality Campus university, health care, volunteer sector and business activities so that this network supports the healthy ageing and independence-through life of the local population and promotes innovation in products and services.
Within this context, the main goals and objectives of this MIA Project – Business plan creation were to:
(1) to deeply study the local environment and plan adequate activities to implement MIA with the successful examples of the NUIA (United Kingdom) and ERIBA (The Netherlands) as role models;
(2) to promote institutional engagement between the partners of the consortium to consolidate the future of MIA.
In the second phase of the project, the main goals and objectives are to:
(1) perform world-class research into the biology of ageing with the aim to detect and validate targets for health-prolonging interventions as well as to identify and validate potential biomarkers allowing early detection of diseases and enabling assessment of intervention efficiency;
(2) translate research results into clinical intervention and towards innovation and technology transfer;
(3) train young researchers in both fundamental and translational research;
(4) engage the public in support and implementation of innovative good practices, pharmacological and lifestyle interventions.
