Invitation to the European Preparatory Meeting for the Joint Programming Initiative “Demographic Change / Health and Ageing” (Berlin, 28th/29th of January 2010)

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has the pleasure to extend an invitation to you to the preparatory meeting for the Joint Programming Initiative “Demographic Change / Health and Ageing Living independently and actively in old age” to be held in Berlin, Germany, 28th/29th of January 2010.

The conference will bring together national representatives and stakeholders of the Member States of the European Union and experts in the field of ageing and demographic change.

Facing the challenges of an ageing population, many valuable initiatives and programmes at national and European level have already been established during the past years. In order to increase the mutual benefit arising from these actions, the BMBF has proposed to the EU-Member States to further develop these activities within the framework of the EU-Joint Programming Initiative, launched by the Research Ministers in the frame of the Competitiveness Council in December 2008. This upcoming meeting is to set up a joint process to interrelate the existing national programmes and instruments and to address the upcoming demands for Europe. It is the aim of this process to launch the Joint Programming Initiative “Demographic Change / Health and Ageing Living independently and actively in old age”.

The participants will engage in discussions on the following topics:
Health & Care,
Welfare & Social Systems,
Education, Learning
Work & Innovativeness,
Urban-Rural Development, Housing
Mobility.

In preparation for this meeting, you will receive a preliminary discussion paper by mid-January. It will include an analysis of existing activities in Europe in the above mentioned fields against the background of the demographic change. The participants will review this paper in workshops and complement it by their comments and by an outlook on future activities in these subject areas.

Subsequently to the meeting, the process will continue by elaborating an outline of the contents of the initiative, with a view of proposing a Strategic Research Agenda and a Strategic Actions Plan to the High Level Group for Joint Programming (GPC) of the Scientific and Technical Research Committee (CREST), followed by a decision of the Competitive Council.

We would be grateful to welcome you as well-known expert in this field taking part in the process towards a Joint Programming Initiative. We kindly ask you to inform us about your participation in the meeting by registering online at www.jp-demographic.eu/conference/registration by 12th of January 2010. At the registration site you will also have the possibility to decide which thematic topic you would like to join.

For further information please visit www.jp-demographic.eu or contact VDI/VDE-IT which organizes the process on behalf of the BMBF.

Yours sincerely,
Marc Bovenschulte