A team led by Professor John Piggott at the Australian School of Business has secured $12.7m in funding over the next 7 years for an Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence to examine population ageing.
This achievement has immense significance for the Australian School of Business, economic and business research and the social sciences. The level of funding is orders of magnitude larger than any research funding the School has previously received.
The grant will enable a team, which also includes Professor Mike Sherris and Professor Alan Woodland from the Australian School of Business, to create a research centre that will become a global intellectual hub focused on population ageing, combining in-house expertise with leading researchers around the world, who will study the population ageing process and its implications for both the private and public sectors.
It will provide Australia with the most innovative solutions to the global phenomenon of population ageing, which Professor John Piggott describes as one of the major social challenges of the 21st century. "Over the next 40 years the number of people of working age will increase by 45%, but the number of people aged between 65 and 84 will more than double, and those 86 and above will increase more than 4 times. Quite simply, there will be many more people who have retired, that need the support of the working population."
He says "these changes in demographic structure will have large effects on the economic and social fabric of many countries, creating major challenges. All of us will need to respond to dramatically changing financial circumstances to increase the well-being of an ageing society. Government, business, and households alike need this research to understand the fiscal, family, health, and labour force changes that will shortly be with us."
The Australian School of Business is the first business school to be awarded a centre of excellence. The Centre will undertake original research to advance knowledge globally. International linkages will encompass the WHO, the OECD and the World Bank, who will be invited to join the Advisory Committee.
Professor John Piggott will become Centre Director of the new Centre of Excellence, which is underpinned by the Australian Institute for Population Ageing Research (AIPAR) at the Australian School of Business.
Professor John Piggott adds "a major aim of the new Centre is to cultivate a two-way engagement with external stakeholders. Boardroom briefings, seminars and workshops organised with government agencies, and industry representation at our annual conferences, are just some of the activities aimed at ensuring a deep and meaningful engagement. The Centre will use the infrastructure provided by AGSM Executive Education programs to deliver professional education on issues related to population ageing."
Marc de Cure, who chairs the Leaders Forum at the Australian Institute for Population Ageing Research, has been key in lending his experience and influence to secure industry support for the vision of a world-class centre for cross-disciplinary research on population ageing issues. In addition to the ARC grant he has helped to secure $1.45m in government support and over $5.4 million in cash and in-kind support from industry, including Bain, National Australia Bank, Stockland and PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Medibank and AMP.
Marc de Cure, who chairs the Leaders Forum at the Australian Institute for Population Ageing Research, has been key in lending his experience and influence to secure industry support for the vision of a world-class centre for cross-disciplinary research on population ageing issues. In addition to the ARC grant he has helped to secure $1.45m in government support and over $5.4 million in cash and in-kind support from industry, including Bain, National Australia Bank, Stockland and PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Medibank and AMP.
The Centre will nurture a new generation of young researchers, by training PhD students and early career researchers, to build high quality research capacity for a generation for which population change will become ever more crucial.