A cross-disciplinary symposium on ageing and dementia between University College London (UCL) and Osaka University (OU) was jointly organised at UCL on 11 and 12 November 2024. Professor Gill Livingston at the Division of Psychiatry, Faculty of Brain Science, UCL; and Professor Manabu Ikeda at the Department of Psychiatry, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine led the organisation. Twenty-two researchers from UCL and thirteen from OU in cross-field research domains participated in the sessions and held extensive discussions with aspirations for deeper and novel research collaborations to address critical issues on local, national, and global scales.        

Both institutions have been working together on the above research themes since 2019 by establishing a virtual joint laboratory and concluding a Memorandum of Understanding to further accelerate joint research in this field. Outstanding research results have already been produced, including:

- Social functioning in dementia scale jointly developed by Associate Professor Andrew Sommerlad at UCL, Associate Professor Maki Suzuki, and Professor Manabu Ikeda’s team at OU; and

- the 2024 report of The Lancet standing Commission on dementia prevention, intervention, and care with contributions from Associate Professor Kokoro Shirai from the Department of Public Health at Osaka University’s Graduate School of Medicine.
 
This initiative undertaken by world-leading research institutions on dementia in the UK and Japan has additionally been strengthened by the increased participation of early-career researchers and experts from a broader range of disciplines. 

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1. Professor Manabu Ikeda, Department of Psychiatry, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine
2. Assistant Professor Yuto Satake, Department of Psychiatry, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine
3. Associate Professor Kokoro Shirai, Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine
4. Assistant Professor Liu Keyang, Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine
5. Dr. Yang Yiyi, Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine
6. Professor Satoshi Hattori, Biomedical Statistics, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine
7. Professor Masayuki Hirata, Department of Neurological Diagnosis and Restoration, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine
8. Associate Professor Maki Suzuki, United Graduate School of Child Development, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine
9. Professor Kei Kamide, Health Promotion System Science, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine
10. Professor Mai Kabayama, Integrated General Nursing Science, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine
11. Associate Professor Miyae Yamakawa, Geriatric Nursing, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine
12. Professor Tsuyoshi Sekitani, Division of Advanced Electronic Devices, SANKEN
13. Associate Professor Teppei Araki, Division of Advanced Electronic Devices, SANKEN

 (Center for Global Initiatives)