Europe is ageing, and with longer lives comes both a great achievement and a big responsibility. Across the continent, healthcare systems, communities, and policymakers are seeking new ways to support people to live not just longer, but healthier lives. Within this context, the Ageing Deal has emerged as a new initiative that brings together research, innovation, and policy to promote healthy ageing through a life-course perspective.

The Ageing Deal was launched by the projects funded under the call HORIZON-HLTH-2023-STAYHLTH-01-01: The Silver Deal – Person-centred health and care in European regions. It is designed as a collaborative initiative, where projects, researchers, healthcare professionals, policymakers, innovators, and citizens come together to exchange knowledge and shape future approaches to ageing. Central to the initiative is a life-course perspective, recognising that healthy ageing is influenced by biological, social, digital, economic, and environmental factors throughout a person’s life.

Within this framework, SmILE works alongside sister projects ComfortAge and STAGE, each addressing different but complementary dimensions of ageing and health. ComfortAge focuses on community-based, integrated, and person-centric solutions for the prevention and management of dementia and frailty, while STAGE studies healthy ageing and multi-morbidity using life-course data to better understand ageing patterns and inform prevention strategies.

SmILE focuses on musculoskeletal non-communicable diseases, including conditions such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and chronic joint and back pain, which significantly affect mobility, independence, and quality of life in older age. Through the use of artificial intelligence, health data analysis, and integration of smart wearables and medical devices, SmILE aims to empower older adults to take a more active role in managing their health.

Cooperation within the Ageing Deal directly supports SmILE’s clustering activities, stakeholder engagement, and policy uptake. This clustering approach helps align project activities, identify synergies, and avoid duplication of efforts across related initiatives. In addition, by sharing perspectives and experiences within the Ageing Deal, SmILE supports mutual learning and helps ensure that research outcomes are grounded in real-world needs. This inclusive approach reflects the project’s commitment to citizen participation and trust-building, which are essential for the successful adoption of innovative health solutions.

The Ageing Deal provides a valuable channel for translating research insights into policy-relevant discussions. By contributing to a collective European dialogue on healthy ageing, SmILE helps create the conditions for its results to inform existing and future policies, including those related to health promotion, prevention, and digital transformation in healthcare. This supports the project’s goal of maximising impact beyond its consortium and ensuring that its work contributes to long-term, sustainable change.

As Europe continues to adapt to demographic change, initiatives like the Ageing Deal demonstrate how collaboration between sister projects can amplify impact and strengthen the connection between research, practice, and policy. In this way, SmILE, ComfortAge and STAGE are building a shared ecosystem that values cooperation, learning, and person-centred innovation, and that works toward a future where ageing is supported with dignity, confidence, and care.

Coming up

The cooperation within the Ageing Deal will continue with the second Ageing Deal conference, “Enabling and Enhancing Prevention and Healthcare Management Across the Ageing Life-Course”, taking place on 23 April 2026 in Rome, Italy. The one-day event will bring together Ageing Deal sister projects, European Commission representatives, policymakers, and local and regional stakeholders involved in shaping care strategies.

Building on the first Ageing Deal event, the conference will further strengthen bottom-up dialogue and knowledge exchange between research, innovation, and practice.

Links

Ageing Deal initiative: https://ageingdeal.eu/

SmILE project: https://www.horizon-smile.eu/

ComfortAge project: https://comfortage.eu/

STAGE project: https://stage-healthyageing.eu/

Keywords

healthcare, research, policy, clustering, stakeholder engagement