Healthy longevity, UniBg presents the new Center for Healthy Longevity

Bergamo. Looking to the future and an excellent quality of daily life are increasingly becoming a mantra for theUniversity of Bergamo. In this direction, the new is born Centre for Healthy Longevitya new research path aimed at finding new solutions linked to changing demographic trends.

In support of the CHL It was signed on Thursday June 27il Memorandum of Understandinga mutual commitment agreement for the planning and implementation of activities in the near future.

Among the signatories Elena Carnevalimayor of Bergamo and her predecessor Giorgio Goripromoter of this commitment, Pasquale GandolfiPresident of the Province of Bergamo, Ariela Benigniscientific secretary of the Mario Negri Institute and research coordinator of the Bergamo and Ranica offices, Giovanni Fassivice-president of Confindustria Bergamo with responsibility for digital transition and innovation, Irio Rivadirector of the Department of Programming for the integration of health and social health services with social services of Ats Bergamo and Franco CammarotaPresident of Ferb (European Biomedical Research Foundation).

“A path that we are carrying forward together with the associative world – underlines the rector of the University of Bergamo Sergio Cavalieri -: what we are making official today is a research center that has already started a few months ago, in various forms and linked to our strategic plan. We are aware that this theme concerns many disciplines of our university and through a working table we have carried out a mapping, arriving at the awareness of the importance of the theme”.

The Centre’s objective is to become a point of reference for people’s health and quality of life, focusing on the over 65.

The machine is already in motion, in fact there are five projects underway. “We want to put the skills of the University of Bergamo under a common factor – specifies the professor Francesca MorgantiScientific Director of the project – to support innovation in the area. Longevity is not a coincidence and empowerment helps us a lot. The debate within the center will be an added value; today we have obsolete models that are far from the new generations, we have new perspectives, a ‘new map of life’. We must also innovate the technological processes of companies, bringing a transition towards retirement”.

The CHL is essentially divided into three different concepts of longevity: the first on the subject of quality of life and linked to an innovation of services linked to the person and the territory, the second concerns daily living environments and last but not least important, the analysis of the relationship between individuals and companies in the working context.

“The Municipality of Bergamo – reiterates Mayor Elena Carnevali – has been able to benefit from this collaboration: the prospects we have are those of the entire country, the city has a high share of over 65%, which is close to 30%. I really appreciate the multifactorial view presented, because there are many factors for living in future conditions, concerning not only the social character, but also the urban one, to grow in a space rich in positive relationships. The potential that we have before us is multiple, we need all this to play on the different levers that a city can put in place”.

Among the cities that already adhere to the platform of Longevicities and in this mission, Bergamo participated as a leader in the creation of a network of medium-sized cities in the North to reflect on the transformation of urban welfare and to support the new vulnerable, the Neet (young people who neither study nor work) and poor workers.

A discussion that was already born in the previous municipal administration and which saw the former mayor Giorgio Gori an active and integral part of the project. “Despite the importance of the demographic issue – adds Gori -, there is still not enough awareness and in-depth analysis on a topic as important as climate change. Any action aimed at improving people’s health conditions is relevant in favor of social protection systems, thus managing to make these conditions a positive factor again. The multidisciplinary dimension that intersects is very fascinating, in fact, a center of this type is appropriate to frame the various knowledge. I was very struck by the fact that in the European context this topic is not at the top of the agenda, as there is not yet a dedicated commission”.

Furthermore, there are various interlocutors at the centre, who will help to articulate the basic ideas in the different contexts involved; among them: the Anthem Foundationil NICA of Newcastle and the GSD of Harvard, to reiterate, ever more, the international nature of the issue.