We are situated in the heart of Manchester, the UK’s first city and region to achieve the World Health Organization (WHO) age-friendly status. We undertake cross-disciplinary and collaborative research to address the challenges posed by our ageing populations across the world.

Improvements in health and mortality and commensurate rapid population ageing are heralding great social change and with it, the realisation that wellbeing in later life is determined by interacting factors from the biological to the social, the structural to the cultural, and the historical to the institutional.

Recognising the complexities of ageing well has become a global priority for policymakers, researchers, communities, families and individuals. Meaningful research into ageing is urgently needed to understand what is happening, to promote ageing well across sectors and places, to inform policy, and hold policymakers to account.

Ageing is a priority area for The University of Manchester, with more than 300 researchers actively engaged in research into ageing across the biological, medical, physical and social sciences, the arts and humanities. MICRA researchers represent some of the world’s foremost thinkers and scientists addressing the key questions into how ageing affects our biology, society and health.