I would like to very much echo my colleagues in welcoming the development of the British Council for Ageing and I would like to express my personal thanks to Baroness Sally Greengross for her help with this initiative. I think it is absolutely clear that along with a number of other projects and programmes emerging at the present time, there is major opportunity for really innovative thinking about the challenge posed by an ageing population. For this to happen it is especially important that we work on understanding the complex relationships between the social, medical, biological and psychological aspects which influence later life.

British gerontology is relatively strong but it is also very compartmentalised. Working in our particular disciplines is of course essential for developing world-class research that can benefit the lives of older people. But the case for inter-disciplinary and inter-professional work in the respect of older people is especially strong and the British Council for Ageing sees the sharing of knowledge across the disciplines as a central objective of its work.

In respect of the British Society of Gerontology, we are especially concerned with understanding the broad impact of ageing both on individuals and upon social institutions. Awareness of how population change will transform all our institutions - political, cultural as well as economic - is still very limited and we see a considerable challenge here in taking forward a new research and policy agenda around this social dimension.

But we have to be more ambitious not just as regards research funding but especially in respect of building research capacity, identifying new topics and priorities for research and improving dissemination to service users and providers. And this is where I think there is a valid role for an organisation that encourages a dialogue between the key professional bodies concerned with developing research and policy for older people. The task we have set ourselves with the BCA is to develop as a respected contact point for policy makers in government and elsewhere, providing evidence and pressing the case for further work in social, medical and biological gerontology.

The advantage to be gained from all societies coming together is that we can I think gain a more detailed perspective on some very vital issues about the level of research capacity we need to build, the best way of encouraging new researchers into the field, and the spread of disciplines that need to be nurtured. We do as well need to share views about emerging topics in ageing which require funding; and we need to link our discussions with the Research Councils, Charitable bodies and Government and gain a consensus for priorities around these major issues.

I think the emergence of the BCA is a sign of ambition - that we can deliver in our respective organisations the scale and quality of research and practice that demographic change will require - but this will need shared work and debate. For its part, the British Society of Gerontology strongly believes that the BCA will provide a valuable stimulus to this important endeavour.