This book is the first of two volumes of work arising from the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) programme. The necessity for two volumes arises from the sheer scale and scope of the programme: 10 years, £22 million, 200-plus researchers, funding from five UK research councils covering the arts and humanities, biological sciences, engineering, the social sciences and medical research. In short, the NDA was the largest single multidisciplinary research programme ever mounted in the UK and probably the largest in Europe. The programme generated hundreds of scientific papers, several books and a comprehensive series of lay findings documents (www.newdynamics. group.shef.ac.uk). The purpose of these two volumes is to bring together all of that work in an accessible form, as an aid to students and researchers. Here and in the twin volume you will find the very rich variety and depth of analyses of ageing carried out by most of the 35 research teams involved. While it cannot be claimed that every facet of ageing is covered, it is the case that most of the major issues are dealt with. Each chapter has been specially prepared for these volumes and follows an agreed standard format, which locates the particular problem in the wider literature, describes the methods used, reports the key findings and discusses their implications.

The first volume in the Policy Press NDA series, The new science of ageing, gives a full account of the significant changes that have taken place in the broad field of gerontology. These include the rise of multidisciplinarity, user engagement and knowledge exchange as initial elements of research. That background will not be repeated here. It is essential though to outline the NDA programme from which the following chapters are derived.

The New Dynamics of Ageing research programme

The NDA programme was the first of its kind: a multidisciplinary collaboration between five UK research councils. At the beginning, in April 2005, there were four research councils behind the programme: the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC). A year later, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) joined in as a co-funder of the programme.