Upcoming Events
ECR Summer School
Application OPEN
Date: 21-22 June 2023
We are organising ECR summer school on Cognitive Frailty and Ageing
Who can take part?
The ECR Summer School is aimed for Early Career researchers interested in Cognitive Frailty and Ageing from a wide range of disciplines, who would like to learn about working in an interdisciplinary manner.
ECR includes PhD Students, Research associates and assistants, people within 3 years of their first independent research role such as fellows or lecturers.
To be eligible to take part in the summer school, you need to be a member of the CFIN Network. If you are not already a member, you can join the network here.
Date and location:
The summer school starts at 11 am BST on 21st June and closes at 4 pm BST on 22nd June 2023.
The summer school takes place at Lancaster University (Health Innovation One building). We have a limited amount of funding available to cover accommodation and travel expenses within the UK.
ECRs can also take part in the summer school online, we are planning to have session recordings for international participants at different time zones.
Available funding:
We can offer accommodation for the 21st of June at the Lancaster Conference Centre, and we have funding available to cover travel expenses within the UK up to £130 for approximately 15 participants. We will ask for an estimated travel cost in the application form.
How to apply?
If you would like to take part in the ECR Summer School in person or online, please join the CFIN Network to receive an invitation email.
Application Deadline: 20th May 2023
Please note: We don’t have a limit on the number of online participants, but due to the size of the venue, we have to limit in person participants to 25 so please register as soon as possible to secure your place. If you miss out on a place in person you will be invited to take part online instead.
(If you are not living in the UK, and you can find other ways to cover your travel expenses to the UK, we can still cover your travel within the UK)
Preliminary programme: It’s still subject to changes, you can view the programme here: ECR Summer School – Preliminary programme
If you have any questions, please get in touch with Nikolett Dravecz (Network Manager) at n.dravecz2@lancaster.ac.uk
Past Events
Delphi Study on Cognitive Frailty – Phase 2
CLOSED
The Delphi technique is a well-established approach to answering a research question through the identification of a consensus view across subject experts. It allows for reflection among participants, who are able to nuance and reconsider their opinion based on the anonymised opinions of others.
The first stage of the Delphi study to elicit expert opinion on potential multisystem interventions for Cognitive Frailty took place at the Network Development Conference in September. The second phase is going to take place through an online questionnaire opening in January 2023. You can take part in the second phase even if you did not take part in the first phase – we are still looking for experts of any aspect of Cognitive Frailty. Researchers, industry, public health, carers, and anyone experiencing these issues are welcome!
Interdisciplinary Mentoring – CLOSED
Application deadline for mentors and mentees: 28th February
The Cognitive Frailty Interdisciplinary Network is opening an Interdisciplinary mentoring programme. We are looking for mentors and mentees interested in ageing, cognition and physical function from a wide range of backgrounds.
Our mentoring programme is aiming to bring together: Biogerontologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, social scientists, health services researchers, practitioners in health and care, industry partners, policy organisations, charities, and the voices of older people.
An interdisciplinary mentoring relationship can:
- provide an outside perspective on the research area of the mentor, and provide help to make the research more translatable
- help share experiences from a different background, putting ideas in a different perspective
- Facilitate decision making by suggesting alternative ideas based on the experience in a different discipline
- Help to bridge the gap and facilitate communication between different disciplines
- Give insight from outside an area of expertise.
- Become familiar or adopt ideas and practices from a completely different field
- Enable understanding of the challenges of transferability between disciplines and developing methods to overcome them
- Develop skills to communicate across disciplines
- Build valuable connections from different disciplines
Cognitive Frailty Interdisciplinary Network Development Conference
(15-16 September 2022)
The CFIN network organised their first online international Network Development conference on 15-16 September with delegates from 5 countries and 32 institutions. Conference included presentations on the two scoping reviews, paper presentations and the following network development activities:
- What does interdisciplinary work mean, and are we doing it? (presentation and discussion from experts)
- Presentation on Interdisciplinary Mentoring, followed by a matchmaking session
- Delphi study: A consensus study on interventions for cognitive frailty – stage 1 (results/outcomes are being evaluated currently, we will run a 2nd stage)
- Consortia development for developing proposals for pump priming (application deadline: 30th October)
You can download the Conference abstract book here:
Pump Priming for interdisciplinary projects
(application closed on 30th October 2023)
The Cognitive Frailty Interdisciplinary network awarded 5 proposals for pump priming. The funding criteria was: At least two disciplinary areas must be involved and we are recommending that some consultation with lay older adults or other non-research stakeholders is included. Time limit for projects: 10 months, max £5000 per project
Projects awarded:
- Cognitive frailty: A conceptual overview and risk factors
- A holistic approach to cognitive frailty in an older community-dwelling population in India: Evidence from a nationally representative survey
- Associations of lipophilic micronutrients with oxidised lipids in persons with mild cognitive impairment
- Distinguishing cognitive frailty from early dementia: the differential role of potential predictors
- A pilot study to explore the neurovascular status of older individuals with a preclinical gait speed decline.