It is proposed to establish a highly interdisciplinary Center on the Demography and Economics of Aging. The Center will have thirteen members drawn from Demography, Economics, Sociology, Anthropology, Public Policy, Statistics and Biology. This distinguished group of researchers includes three members of the National Academy of Sciences, and recipients of many other honors and prizes. Center members hold 7 current NIA grants, and two NSF grants on aging related topics. (In addition, they currently hold two NICHD funded grants for aging related research, both of which will expire before the Center starts, and numerous federal and non- federal grants for non-aging related research.) Their current funded research on aging clusters around two themes: 1) analysis and forecasting of mortality and population at both the aggregate and micro levels; 2) life cycle planning, asset accumulation and interage transfers as motivated by needs in old age. With Center Core B support, members will establish a third theme; 3) elderly health status and health care utilization. The Center will lead to more efficient and better research by a) providing infrastructural support for computing and data access, infrastructure which will effectively exploit economies of scale; b) facilitating and encouraging interactions among the members from diverse departments; c) supporting new research initiatives through Core B funding of pilot projects; and d) encouraging innovation and creativity by providing Core A resources to pursue spur of the moment ideas while they are fresh. It is also an important goal of the Center to increase research activities on aging among social scientists at Berkeley including non-members of the Center (and perhaps at other local institutions). Berkeley has a highly successful and well-funded interdisciplinary training program in Demography, and is planning to submit a training grant proposal to NIA this Spring; it has already trained several researchers in aging.
| Banks, D A; Fossel, M (1997) Telomeres, cancer, and aging. Altering the human life span. JAMA 278:1345-8 |
