We are living longer than ever before—and this trend is set to continue. However, it is not just the number of years we live that matters, but the quality of those years. This is precisely where the UZH Healthy Longevity Center comes in: its goal is to ensure that a long life is also a life that is personally meaningful, healthy, active, and self-determined.
Promoting a meaningful, healthy, active, and self-determined life.
Center Update: UZH Healthy Longevity Center
Funding Need: CHF 9,000,000
Duration: Ten years (2026–2036)
Progress Report: Since April 2023, the UZH Healthy Longevity Center has been fully operational and is conducting intensive research to promote a good life in diverse life contexts. At the heart of the HLC are eight agile research and innovation groups that combine expertise from various scientific disciplines with data science to develop timely and context-specific applications for social innovation. Each group aims to harness the complexity of healthy aging and longevity to develop tailored measures and solutions.
A heartfelt thank you to all donors who make this valuable research possible!
As life expectancy rises, the importance of effective prevention grows. How can we maintain mental and physical function well into old age so that people can continue doing what matters to them and brings them joy for as long as possible? But how do we fundamentally adapt to and cope with changes and limitations? Interdisciplinary research at the UZH Healthy Longevity Center addresses these and other questions—spanning fields from psychology and neuroscience to geriatrics and geography.
The focus is on a holistic understanding of aging: Innovative approaches combine psychological, medical, biological, and behavioral science perspectives and methods to develop sustainable solutions—integrated into individuals’ daily lives—for maintaining well-being and quality of life in old age. Everyday data and its analysis (including AI-based methods), under the personal control of individuals, play a central role in this process. The goal is to support people in remaining independent for as long as possible and in being able to do what matters most to them.
The UZH Healthy Longevity Center thus addresses one of the most pressing issues of our time—and is actively shaping the future of aging.
