February 21, 2023

NEAR’s new Steering Group

Willhelmina Hoffman, Björn Halleröd, Kaare Christensen, Luigi Ferrucci, Anne, W Ekdahl

NEAR has now entered phase 2.0, with a focus on consolidation and expansion. Due to that, a newly formed Steering Group has been appointed. The newly formed Steering Group consists of members with national and internationally recognized expertise in aging research and research infrastructures, as well as representatives of societal issues related to aging and user perspectives. The Steering Group oversees the strategic plan, budget, and steering documents.

On February 20, the newly formed Steering Group and adjunct members met via Zoom to get an introduction to NEAR and an update on current projects and future plans.

Steering Group Members:
Björn Halleröd , Chair, Professor in sociology, University of Gothenburg
Wilhelmina Hoffman , President of the Swedish Dementia Centre (SDC)
Anne Ekdahl, Senior lecturer, senior physician, specialist physician, Lund University
Luigi Ferrucci, Scientific Director of National Institute on Aging, USA
Kaare Christensen, Professor of epidemiology at the University of Southern Denmark

Associated members: Laura Fratiglioni, Lena Lewin, Debora Rizzuto, Davide Liborio Vetrano, Linnea Sjöberg

We look forward to continued work with the Steering Group!

More activities

March 24, 2026

Uppsala University is joining NEAR!

NEAR is happy to share that we are expanding to include Uppsala University and two additional databases: the Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men (ULSAM) and the Healthy Ageing Initiative (HAI). HAI is led by Peter Nordström and Anna Nordström, and ULSAM is also led by Peter Nordström. ULSAM is a population-based longitudinal cohort study […]

December 11, 2025

NEAR Partners with Spanish Seniors-Enrica study

As aging is a global phenomenon with challenges that transcend borders, NEAR views building strong international partnerships with similar research networks and studies as essential. Thus, we’re happy to announce our new partnership with the Spanish Seniors-Enrica study. What is Seniors-Enrica? Seniors-Enrica is a national study on nutrition and cardiovascular risk factors, featuring two cohorts: […]

December 10, 2025

NEAR Receives NordForsk Grant for Nordic Research Infrastructure Hubs

We are excited to share that NordForsk has awarded NEAR 5,515,823 SEK for the NEXT-NORD project: NEXT Generation Transdisciplinary Aging Research for Nordic Excellence, for 2026−2031. Why this matters The Nordic countries are uniquely positioned to lead globally in aging research, thanks to decades of high-quality, population-based studies, which can be linked to registers. However, […]