"“Archipelago of Generations. Course on intergenerational practice for animators and educators"" was a strategic partnership and project set up in trilateral cooperation by non-governmental organizations from Poland (Association for Creative Initiatives ę / Warsaw), the UK (Beth Johnson Foundation / Stoke-on-Trent), and Germany (Kreisau-Initiative eV / Berlin). The main objective of the project was to promote the competence of staff working with older people and intergenerational groups in Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom through the development of on-line course and joint development of teaching materials: a catalogue of good practices and a set of methods / scenarios for activities with intergenerational groups. The activities were aimed at personnel of the partner organizations, cooperating networks of coaches, leaders and experts, and more broadly - people interested in the development of competence in working with older people and intergenerational groups. An important group of participants were those 60+, as animators and experts on the needs of this age group. Activities included work on the elaboration of the course and methodological publications and a joint learning process of all three organizations, based on a series of short training programs, a series of project meetings and virtual collaboration spaces. They were concluded by a series of events to disseminate the results in the form of workshops organized in each of the three countries. The project was directed by an innovative design thinking approach, methodology of incubation of ideas and the principle of empowerment. The project partners have significant and varied experience in the field of supporting active aging and cooperation of generations. Each country represents also a different stage of development of policies and practices in this field, which is why international cooperation has brought all those involved, as well as all target groups, tangible benefits. The online course on intergenerational practices and two methodological publications increased the competence of educators and animators, all partners strengthened their institutional capacity. Experience and expertise transferred between the partners has been an impetus for on ongoing support of solidarity between generations in Poland, Germany and the UK. Diverse realities of the involved countries, as well as rich and various experience of the partners were a factor stimulating the process of mutual learning. All partners act as cross-linking organizations and support local initiatives in their own countries, which secured broad and effective dissemination of achieved results."

The creation of 'a society for all ages' is one of the United Nation's key goals. Intergenerational solidarity is fundamental if we are to achieve the social change necessary to fulfil this ideal. Yet this solidarity is threatened by environmentally unsustainable models of consumption that raise fundamental questions about justice between generations in the Global North, rising powers, and the developing world. However, intergenerational justice has overwhelmingly been researched from a Western perspective. INTERSECTION will internationalise this debate though innovative, multi-method, cross-national research to explore inequitable consumption practices between different generations across time and space. The research will be located in three contrasting national contexts: China, Uganda, and the UK, where we will work in partnership with academic colleagues at Makerere University (Uganda) and Beijing University (China) and key stakeholders from international and national Non-Governmental Organisations (e.g. The Beth Johnson Foundation, Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations, World Council's Commission on Future Justice and Citizenship Foundation). These national contexts have been chosen because they are differentially positioned in terms of demographics (e.g. the composition and spacing of generations); cultural values (e.g. understandings of familial obligations, moralities and notions of personhood); histories; material cultures; patterns of consumption; environmental assets and problems. INTERSECTION is organised into three core elements (theoretical; methodological and analytical) and three strands of enquiry - Strand A, Who is Entitled to What? Generational Views on Entitlements to Consumption; Strand B, Who Wins and Loses? Perceptions of Intergenerational Equity in Consumption; Strand C, Who Owes What to Whom? Strategies to Produce a Society for All Ages. It brings together expertise from Geography (Valentine & Vanderbeck), Linguistics (Chen), East Asian Studies (Zhang) and English/ African Studies (Plastow). The research involves active collaboration with partners from the creative sector: the sculptor Anthony Bennett and the animated film-maker Nick Bax. They will create public art that will be: used as research tools; act as a focal points for the development of public engagement and knowledge exchange activities with our non-academic stakeholders; and will provide impact beyond the award by providing a lasting reminder of our obligations towards future generations The findings will meet the challenge of developing new international and interdisciplinary understandings of intergenerational justice by developing an evidence base about how changing consumption values and practices relate to and/or impede the production of intergenerational solidarities. In doing so, it will produce new insights into how the relationship between consumption practices and intergenerational justice are understood outside of the global North. The research will also further develop cross-national research methods for understanding questions of intergenerational justice, promote transdisciplinary networks, and build research capacity through facilitating training and collaboration between researchers in different national contexts. INTERSECTION will achieve impact by contributing to transnational questions about how to achieve cultural change in consumption practices and will inform government and international priorities in relation to building sustainable societies, and addressing intergenerational inequalities in national and international contexts. In doing so, it will contribute to the shaping of the future development of the AHRC's Care for the Future Programme, providing a leadership role by highlighting the significance of non-Western and international ways of thinking about intergenerational justice and sustainability and will contribute to the United Nations goal to produce a society for all ages.

Our project focuses on a previously neglected area of research: how does providing care for grandchildren impact on the health and wellbeing of grandparents? Promoting the health and wellbeing of older people is a critical policy issue as the population ages, while social, economic and demographic changes across Europe point to an increasing role for grandparents in providing childcare support to families. Despite competing pressures on older workers to remain in the workforce for longer and to provide care to frail family members, there are additional pressures on grandparents to provide childcare. This is thought to be due to policies encouraging more mothers into the paid workforce, increases in rates of family breakdown and single motherhood, and financial pressures on families. This vital economic and social role is largely overlooked or taken for granted by policymakers, and the health impacts on older people of taking on these childcare roles are not known. This issue affects millions of people. There are 14 million grandparents in the UK, many of working age: 25% of grandparents over the age of 50 are under 60, and 40 per cent are under 65. In Britain, 17% of grandparents with a grandchild under 16 provide intensive levels of childcare of at least ten hours a week and around one in thirty provides full time care to, or lives with a grandchild. Prior research suggests those grandparents with 'primary care' responsibilities for a grandchild or who undertake intensive grandparenting roles are often among the most disadvantaged and in the poorest health. However, since this is mostly drawn from cross-sectional data, it is not known whether or to what extent this is due to cumulative disadvantages throughout the life course or to the impact of grandchild care per se. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms and causal pathways between grandchild care and grandparent health and wellbeing is needed. Earlier findings on the relationship between grandchild care and grandparent health are inconclusive and researchers have suggested that this may be because this relationship is likely to vary by socio-economic circumstances with those in the most vulnerable groups being the most adversely affected. Using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) we will examine the long-term social, health and economic determinants of grandparents' current health and wellbeing status, focusing on the intervening role of grandchild care. We will focus on understanding how cumulative advantage and disadvantage interacts with grandchild care to affect grandparent health and wellbeing. Using the life history information collected we will be able to explore the relationship between different life experiences and grandparents' current health and wellbeing. For example, we will be able to capture lifetime experiences such as time spent in institutional care as children, with single parents, periods of poor health as children and with ill-health and disability as adults, periods of unemployment, experiences of divorce, widowhood and single parenthood, periods of partner's ill health/disability, and frequent house moves. Such an analysis will provide us with a better understanding of the cumulative impact of life course trajectories on health outcomes among grandparents. We will also explore how variations over time in grandparent childcare and other socio-economic and demographic factors affect grandparents' own health and wellbeing. This is important as understanding the health and wellbeing impact of engagement in childcare on older people will provide important evidence to enable policy makers across Europe to ensure that the role of grandparents in children's lives is better supported and any deleterious effects on health are minimised.

Population ageing in Europe will continue with accelerating pace in the next decades. This trend requires societal adaptations regarding education and training, work, family life and social protection. One such adaption is intergenerational learning (IGL), which brings people from different generations together, to share activities, learn and understand each other better. Together Old and Young Project or TOY (www.toyproject.net) (2012-2014) was unique amongst European IGL projects with its focus on including children in the early childhood years (0-10 years) in IGL activities with older adults (65 +). TOY research and pilot actions demonstrated that intergenerational facilitators are crucial to the success of intergenerational projects and initiatives. However, to date IGL involving the youngest and oldest members of our society is not a strategy or approach or formally recognized and validated in adult education, nor in pre-service and continuing professional development (CPD) of professionals working with these age groups. Neither is this kind of IGL recognized in the field of Lifelong Learning. The objectives of the TOY-PLUS project are to develop, test and disseminate an innovative online curriculum and methodology in IG work for practitioners in early childhood education and care (ECEC), social care and community work. Specific modules in the curriculum will focus on including newly arrived and resident migrants and Roma in IG practice, as a means of fostering intercultural dialogue, participation and social inclusion. We also will develop and test an IG certificate of quality (TOY Quality Stamp) with agreed standards for local authorities and educational institutions. TOY-PLUS will forge a cross-sectoral and a community approach stimulating collaborations across the fields of adult education and training, health, community development, ECEC and care for older people.Participants in TOY-PLUS will be ECEC and Social Care practitioners and community development workers from 5 countries: Italy, Ireland, Slovenia, Spain and the UK. They will participate in a multi-faceted training and education experience which will incorporate workshops, international training involving study visits, joint reflection and exchange of good practice in IGL, piloting of a massive open online course (MOOC) and creating a peer learning community for IGL. At the end of the project the TOY-PLUS MOOC will be publicly available on open online learning platforms. Other participants in TOY-PLUS will be staff of local authorities and ECEC, and Social Care services, young children (0-10 years) and older adults (65 years +) all of whom will participate in the development and testing of a TOY Quality Stamp. The TOY Quality Stamp will be awarded to local authorities and service providers meeting the quality standards in IGL. The impact of TOY-PLUS will be that ECEC and Social Care practitioners will develop skills and competences to deliver successful IGL activities involving young children and older adults, paying particular attention to social integration and intercultural dialogue. IGL will be a powerful tool to foster inclusion of migrant and Roma children and older adults. The TOY-PLUS MOOC, designed to reach hundreds of practitioners internationally from 2018, will result in increased skills to develop, manage, deliver and monitor IGL practices Europe- and even world-wide. The TOY Quality Stamp process combined with the TOY-PLUS training will result in improved quality of IGL practice. Finally, researchers and trainers in partner organisations will become experts in designing and implementing accessible and flexible training curricula for practitioners in IGL. They will also be competent in developing content for digitalization in massive open online courses. We also expect synergies and cooperation between the partner organisations with respect to cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary adult online education in general, and in IGL in particular.

The World Health Organization (WHO) model of 'age-friendly cities' emphasizes the theme of supportive urban environments for older citizens. These defined as encouraging 'active ageing' by 'optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age' (WHO, Global Age-friendly Cities, 2007). The goal of establishing age-friendly cities should be seen in the context of pressures arising from population ageing and urbanisation. By 2030, two-thirds of the world's population will reside in cities, with - for urban areas in high-income countries - at least one-quarter of their populations aged 60 and over. This development raises important issues for older people: To what extent will cities develop as age-friendly communities? Will so-called global cities integrate or segregate their ageing populations? What kind of variations might occur across different types of urban areas? How are different groups of older people affected by urban change? The 'age-friendly' city perspective has been influential in raising awareness about the impact of population ageing. Against this, the value of this approach has yet to be assessed in the context of modern cities influenced by pressures associated with global social and economic change. The IPNS has four main objectives: first, to build a collaborative research-based network focused on understanding population ageing in the context of urban environments; second to develop a research proposal for a cross-national study examining different approaches to building age-friendly cities; third to provide a systematic review of data sets and other resources of relevance to developing a research proposal on age-friendly cities; fourth, to develop training for early career resarchers working on ageing and urban issues. The network represents the first attempt to facilitate comparative research on the issue of age-friendly cities. It builds upon two meetings held at the Universities of Keele and Manchester in 2011 that sought to establish the basis for cross-national work around the 'age-friendly' theme. The IPNS represents brings together world class research groups in Europe, Hong Kong and North America, professionals concerned with urban design and architecture, and leading NGOs working in the field of ageing. A range of activities have been identified over the two-year funding period: (1) Preparation of research proposals for a cross-national study of approaches to developing age-friendly urban environments. (2) Two workshops to specify theoretical and methodological issues raised by demographic change and urbanisation. (3) A Summer School exploring links between data resources of potential relevance to the ageing and urbanisation theme and which might underpin research proposals. (4) Master classes for network members from key researchers in the field of urbanisation and ageing. (5) A workshop with a user-based theme developing older people's participation in research on building age-friendly communities. (6) Themed workshops (face-to-face and via video-link) to identify research and policy gaps drawing on inter-disciplinary perspectives The IPNS will be sustained in a variety of ways at the end of the funding period. A collaborative research proposal as well as one to maintain the network will be major outputs from the project and work with potential funding bodies will continue after 2014. Dissemination activities will continue through professional networks, symposia at major international conferences, and involvement in expert meetings. The project will continue to be advertised through the maintenance of a website maintained by the host UK HEI. The project will continue to make a contribution to policy development around the theme of age-friendly cities, notably with the main NGOs working in the field.