Experts win £2m for work to keep the elderly mobile

The two projects are among seven nationwide aimed at helping the elderly to stay active including measures to improve the designs of towns, as well as the lay-outs of homes and care homes.

More than 5,000 people will contribute their views, experiences and even their brain wave patterns to help shape future design as part of the research drive.

Experts from York, Leeds, Newcastle and Northumbria universities have been awarded £1.25m for work with 120 older people at three locations in the north to examine how their lives are affected by common changes – among them losing a partner, deteriorating sight or becoming a carer.

A further grant of £640,000 has been handed to Sheffield University for a three-year project to examine how the design of housing and local neighbourhoods can be improved for the elderly to enable them to stay in their own homes.

Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts said: “We need to do everything we can to meet the needs of our ageing population.

“These research projects will involve thousands of volunteers and draw on the expertise of Britain’s leading universities to help older people live more healthily, happily and independently.”

Prof Rick Rylance, chief executive of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, said: “These ambitious new projects will bring together a wide range of expertise to re-imagine what our homes and our communities might look like in the years to come.”