Why Network?
Ageing research is important to society. It leads to considerable benefits for older people and to those organisations which provide services to older people. Older people and a wide range of organisations recognise the value of ageing-related research which is clearly focused on meeting their needs, even where that research may not have an immediate application. They have been very supportive of SPARC and their encouragement has been instrumental to its development.
Participation of this wide range of "stakeholders" in SPARC facilitates researchers' understanding of the challenges faced both by practitioners and by older people. SPARC drew heavily on the advice of those outside of the academic world directly and, through the non-academic members of its Advisory Committee, through formal and informal meetings with a wide range of organisations representing older people and through workshops. In particular the latter allowed older people and other potential research users to draw confidence from both the objectivity of current research and from the opportunity to discuss practical details with the researchers.
In parallel, to be truly effective, researchers have to be able to learn about, evaluate and assimilate research from fields which are quite different to their own. Ageing research is essentially multi-disciplinary, often requires collaboration with a wide range of agencies, and has to be able to articulate its potential to improve the quality of life and well-being of older people. So, researchers also need a very broad perspective on ageing.
So for benefits to accrue from ageing-related research, researchers and potential research users have to be aware of what research is available, who is carrying it out and how it can be of value to them. Thus, an important SPARC activity was the promotion of Research Council funded ageing research, and that supported by other agencies, to all of those who could benefit. A principal vehicle for raising awareness and promoting ageing research was national and regional workshops open to all-comers.
However workshops are not sufficient. There is a continual need to make face-to-face contact with policy makers and gatekeepers, not least in government, to explain and promote the achievements of those involved in physical and biological ageing research. This activity has to be strategically systematic and tactically opportunistic. It required extensive personal contact by the SPARC team with a wide variety of individuals through correspondence, telephone conversations, emails and personal meetings.
Since some of these contacts have significant influence in policy circles it was essential that they were appraised of important contributions made by national ageing research programme. The effectiveness of practitioners can also be enhanced as a result of the advances made through the projects. As practice becomes increasingly effective the needs of older people for improved quality of life can be met. This will lead to ageing-related research being increasingly valued by the public as a whole. But this can only take place if such improvements are recognised as the result of UK investment in the science base. Promotion is also being achieved through more traditional means, for example, conference addresses about SPARC, refereed journal papers and reports in a range of other publications, from professional magazines and local newspapers through to radio and television interviews.
Network: Overview | Advocacy | Why Network? | Hosting a SPARC Meeting | Organising a SPARC Meeting | International |
