The number of people over 65 is predicted to double in the next 50 years. Age is the most important risk factor for stroke, heart attacks, cancers, diabetes, and many other chronic diseases. Tackling the effects of the ageing population in Europe has stimulated funding of research initiatives at both national and European levels. A key requisite to develop new interventions for age-related conditions and promote healthier ageing is the availability and use of preclinical murine models. There is currently a clear lack of such models and appropriate standardised methodologies to test interventions. Therefore, to improve the quality of European ageing research a coordinated interdisciplinary action is needed to standardise methodologies and animal welfare, and to define endpoints, as well as centralising information, models and technologies for the assessment of interventions. This Action proposes to set-up a highly interactive and flexible European network, which will create a critical mass of cross-disciplinary scientists, clinicians and industrial partners to reach consensus on ways to test preclinical interventions in ageing mice. It will consolidate current best practice across leading European institutions and researchers, maximise resource efficiency, and provide a platform to help train the next generation of scientists.
