On April 4, at Biodonostia, a presentation was made of the Strategy of Research on Aging developed by the Institute, focussed on presenting the lines of research which have gradually emerged, as well as the results of several studies carried out in the last five years.

The event, which was opened by the Director of the Institute, Dr Julio Arrizabalaga, had the participation of all of the researchers in the different groups involved in the research, headed by their coordinators, Dr Ander Mateu and Dr Itziar Vergara, wo presented the progress achieved in their specific fields.

Several questions were discussed during the event, such as the environmental and biological factors of healthy human aging and those which provoke premature aging; the epidemiological, social and economic implications of aging and associated illnesses; the biological determinants responsible for aging and identification of their common physiopathological substrate, and the determinants of active and health aging and fragility.

Healthy aging represents a socioeconomic challenge of enormous magnitude in advanced societies, where the aging population is constantly on the rise, generating important imbalances in health care and in the sustainability of a universal health care system. Thus, the Basque Statistics Office, Eustat, in its document «Projections of the population of Gipuzkoa 1995-2020», anticipates a seriously imbalanced global population census, given that the number will be much lower at the base of the pyramid, while the oldest group (>65) will rise notably, attaining a relative weight of 24% in the overall population in 2020.

Conscious of this reality, in 2013 the Biodonostia HRI proposed an R&D&I strategy focussed on aging, to which it designated the acronym IKAGURE-BD, and in which an endeavour has been made to incorporate the different actors of its environment who work in the field of Health.