About IARA – the research centre on ageing in Carinthia, Austria

The research centre IARA was established on the initiative of the Committee for Research & Development (R&D) and the University Management of Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (CUAS) in a competitive, university-wide tendering process. Since then, the task of the centre has been to bundle and network research on ageing at CUAS and to develop new, innovative projects based on these activities. In close cooperation between the three IARA departments, new findings about the living conditions of older people, technical support possibilities as well as economic and demographic conditions are collected, expanded, analysed, processed and disseminated so that this knowledge can be made available to politics, business and civil society. To this end, IARA promotes in particular application-oriented research and transdisciplinary approaches.

The application for the continuation of IARA for another 5 years of activity (2021-2025) was approved by the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences on the basis of the recommendations of the jury and external expert opinions with a very positive response. The core tasks and objectives of IARA remain unchanged. In the 2^nd funding period, transdisciplinary research will take centre stage even more strongly. The transdisciplinary approach to research questions will be fundamentally taken into account, so that the specialised approaches of the IARA departments will be increasingly interlinked. Projects with application-orientated research and participatory involvement of the target groups are also being further expanded. Internationalisation and the anchoring of research activities in teaching will become priority areas. The ageing research institute IARA also sees itself as a research service provider that generates knowledge, develops practice-oriented solutions, derives recommendations for action and, last but not least, accompanies the implementation of new measures. The transfer of knowledge to various stakeholders in society and thus our third mission mandate are to be strengthened in various ways.

The continuation of the IARA Institute for Applied Research on Ageing at the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences was approved by the University Board at the meeting on 11 June 2025. IARA has already been successfully implemented for two 5-year periods and will start its 3^rd period (2026-2030) from January 2026. The IARA management team gave a review of the last 10 years at the CUAS-Collegium and provided information on the planned measures for the coming period. In the future, the good work will also be characterised by knowledge transfer as well as project and publication cooperation in the field of age(ing) between IARA and the European University Alliance ACE²EU, of which the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences has been a founding member since 2024.