Organization

Organization

NEAR is organized as a consortium that includes eight universities: Karolinska Institutet, the universities of Umeå, Jönköping, Gothenburg, Lund, Uppsala, Stockholm, and the Blekinge Institute of Technology. The consortium is defined and regulated by the 2017 and 2022 consortium agreements.

 

Steering Group
NEAR is led by a steering group (SG) comprised of members with nationally and internationally recognized expertise in aging research and research infrastructures, as well as societal issues related to aging and the user perspective. The SG has overall responsibility for strategic plans, budgets, and steering documents.

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

 

Internal Leading Group 
The Internal Leading Group (LG) comprises the NEAR director and a representative of each of the NEAR databases all of whom are well-known researchers in aging and health. The Internal Leading Group prepares proposals for the Steering Group concerning the strategic plan, the budget, and the implementation of the guidelines. In addition, they are responsible for NEAR’s overall implementation and quality control.

Members:

Associated members: NEAR Operational Group

 

NEAR Central

NEAR is centrally coordinated by the NEAR Operational Group (OG) that is located at the Aging Research Center (ARC), Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Health (NVS), Karolinska Institutet

Operational group (OG) is overall responsible for the operation of NEAR, for all user contact and to promote NEAR. All the activities of the OG are planned and approved by the SB.

Members:
Director Laura Fratiglioni
Scientific Coordinator Debora Rizzuto
Scientific Communicator Linnea Sjöberg
Statistician Bolin Wu
Software Developer Basile Rommes
Database Coordinator Maria Wahlberg
Scientific Promoter Davide Liborio Vetrano
Project Coordinator Ingrid Ekström
Project Coordinator Ulrika Isaksson

 

Local Databases
NEAR consists of 14 local databases. The principal investigators (PI) of each database, together with their database managers, are responsible for maintaining, upgrading, and enriching the databases with data collected according to strict standards of quality.