GOALD for researchers

GOALD was run collaboratively by the University of Stirling’s Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport and the SPARKLE research group, as well as Stirling’s Centre for Environment, Dementia and Ageing Research in partnership with the University of Plymouth’s Centre for Health Technology (CHT).

Funding came from UK Research and Innovation’s Healthy Ageing Challenge via the Economic and Social Research Council’s Social Behavioural and Design Research Programme.

GOALD was partnered with three national strategic partners: ukactive, Sporting Heritage, Generations Working Together and seven local community groups: Sports Heritage Scotland, Active Stirling; Cornwall Rural Community Charity, Devon and Cornwall South Asian Society, Hearing Loss Cornwall, iSight Cornwall and Nudge.

We also worked with 12 care homes, four in Scotland and eight in the South West. You can find a list of the GOALD partners on our partners page.

Over the course of the three-year project, the research team recorded the different groups’ experiences of digital resources and assistive technologies and then shared their findings with business partners – small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – to develop new technologies, product ideas and test design concepts.

The work was aligned to the University of Plymouth's existing EPIC project and the University of Stirling’s The Stirling 1000 Elders and expanded on the networks within them both.

Phase 1

Phase 1 of the project was multifaceted, it involved:

working with our seven local community groups and 12 care homes to recruit them as partners on our project, to later help recruit older and younger people for the Intergenerational Co-production Groups (ICGs) in Phase 2

identifying innovative technologies which could be used to encourage greater physical activity in older people, to be tested by the ICGs

establishing an advisory group made up of care home staff and community group members to advise on all aspects of the project from research methods, promotion and webinar content to technology suitability for older adults and the ICGs.

Phase 2

In Phase 2 we began to recruit our older and younger participants, working closely with our community groups and care homes to create Intergenerational Co-production Groups. These ICGs became a pivotal resource for the project.

ICG participants had opportunities to engage in various experiences focused on physical activity, sports, reminiscence, health and wellbeing, many of which involved the use of novel digital health technologies. The ICG's tested and fed-back on the experiences, and helped develop and improve the ideas to best support their health and wellbeing. We encouraged engagement of businesses to participate in the co-production process, receiving valuable feedback from ICG's on their interventions or technologies, meaning experiences will better suit the needs and desires of the potential end-users.

As part of our learning from Phase 2, we sought to build on best methodological practice for establishing intergenerational connections using the internet and technologies. This was valuable knowledge to support social connectedness and reducing loneliness through remote means.

GOALD for researchers

Promoting research and outcomes

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 4

Phase 5

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