Projects

A Brand New Sense explores the potential of an intuitive and accessible movement sonification system to encourage physical activity of older adults in intergenerational settings.

As the NHS waiting list soars above six million people, older people with chronic conditions face worsening symptoms, more complicated surgeries, and reduced quality of life. The NHS is promoting exercise as a “miracle cure”. But we’re living in a physical inactivity pandemic, with only limited success in getting older people to be more active. We will develop a toolkit for health professionals to build community-based group exercise programmes for older adults with chronic conditions.

Lives are increasingly sedentary with more time spent indoors and on screens. As we get older lack of physical activity leads to poorer health outcomes. This project engages with industry to better design our physical domestic environment and build opportunities for physical activity into everyday life. How we plan green spaces, walking and cycling connections, and community facilities all have the potential to increase health in our communities.

Supporting care homes to be more active and healthy places by increasing the activity levels of residents through engaging digital arts content, and providing training and support for care staff.

Using ‘Well-Bean’ Machines (fully equipped vans) to deliver an innovative exercise outreach service to streets and neighbourhoods with high densities of vulnerable older people, helping to improve and sustain physical and social activity levels for better health and wellbeing.

The team at aiKNIT are inventing cutting edge material technology, to design programmable wearable devices that can change their material characteristics such as stiffness and elasticity, to support a patients recovery from musculoskeletal disorders. The programmable material characteristics will fit the patient’s anatomical and physiological needs in a highly personalised fashion to facilitate faster and more effective healing.

Helping people at a stage of life most at risk of osteoporosis preserve their bone strength, is key for helping individuals stay fracture-free for as long as possible. This project aims to assess the potential to transform research regarding the benefits of bone-specific activity into a long-term population level intervention to help preserve bone health in mature adults and those living with osteoporosis.

Working with supported-living older residents, this is an explorative study of what is wanted and needed to sustain mobility.

Shaping creative, movement workshops for and by older people to help sustain physical activity, encourage strong social connections and challenge age-related stereotypes in a new and innovative way.

Dance to Health, an arts-based exercise programme for the health sector which ‘smuggles’ exercise into local groups and since Covid-19 digitally via Zoom classes and DVD’s for areas with poor broadband.

Scotland has a national digital programme, ALISS – A Local Information System for Scotland, which helps people to find the services, resources, activities and groups that they need to live well and stay connected to their community.

This project develops a knee device to support and monitor rehabilitation of individuals suffering from knee osteoarthritis. Users will wear the device during exercises and daily activities with the device providing muscle support to the individual but also real-time feedback on their progress to clinicians. This information will help to find the best treatment during rehabilitation, leading to better patient outcomes.

The WESTERN plan (Walking, Exercise, Snacking, Tai-chi, Edification, Relationships, Nutrition) aims to provide personalised plans to promote active ageing in adults living in care settings.

Recovery after stroke depends on participating in a structured exercise programme. However, older adults with stroke find it challenging to maintain an optimal level of physical activity. To encourage participation in physical activity, we aim to co-design an interactive resistance exercise solution for older stroke survivors with impairments in upper limbs. We will co-design it by testing accessible and affordable fitness equipment and will involve older adults with stroke to take part in this process.

About 60% of UK stroke survivors are aged ≥65 years and have lower limb weakness with reduced mobility.

Research shows that if we keep up activity and exercise consistently from an early enough age, most of us can stay independent at home until the last few months of life. This project is developing Lifecurve, an app tracking the user’s ability to undertake 19 core daily activities. Scores are provided, activity and exercise goals set, encouragement given and data can be compared to others of a similar age. The app has the potential to have significant positive effects on activity levels.

This project, led by the University of Stirling in collaboration with the University of Plymouth’s Centre for Health Technology, aims to improve access to online resources for older people in a bid to enhance lifecourse health and well-being.

Transforming golf clubs into research hubs to discover the best golfing interventions to improve health and strength in those that are frail and living with dementia.

Co-designing and developing technology to maximise the ‘engagement routes’ and ‘exit routes’ for older adults with MSK complaints to sustain physical activity and wider health and wellbeing services in leisure and community venues.

Specialising in AI-personalised exercise programmes for older adults living with disabilities and musculoskeletal disorders, helping to prevent falls and hospitalisation by encouraging older adults to build and maintain their strength and balance in community settings or at home. Driving long-term behaviour change with augmented reality exercise games.

Green Walks will aid the UK population in finding green spaces within easy walking distance of their homes, while providing incentives to get out of the house by encouraging users to engage with changing natural elements of these green spaces (such plants coming into bloom or seasonal bird migrations), via a co-designed web-based AI search interface and mobile app. Monitoring the user’s progress through GPS, motion data, and quick self-reported mental health cues.