SDU researcher receives prestigious EU grant

Associate Professor Marie-Pier Bergeron Boucher from the Interdisciplinary Centre on Population Dynamics at the University of Southern Denmark has just been awarded a European grant of EUR 1.4 million, equivalent to DKK 11 million.

She will lead a project aimed at developing new methods for estimating and forecasting lifespan more precisely across a wider range of factors than is currently done.

The grant is a so-called ERC Starting Grant, which is awarded to talented early-career researchers to help them establish their own research group.

A more accurate picture of lifespan

Today, lifespan is typically estimated for broad populations, or by on one or two characteristics, such as sex, marital status and education attainment. However, researchers do not know how these different factors jointly influence lifespan. The starting point for the new project is that lifespan is shaped by a far more complex interplay between social and health factors.

- Discussions of lifespan often focus on population averages. However, in all countries, there are major differences in how long people live. We know that factors such as education, gender, income and marital status have an impact on lifespan. The challenge is that we typically examine one or two factors separately, even though people possess many different characteristics at the same time. We still know too little about the interaction between the factors, and my project will help us understand this better, says Marie-Pier Bergeron Boucher, adding:

- The aim of the research is to improve our understanding of lifespan and develop more accurate estimates and forecasts. This can give us a better picture of why some people live longer than others, and of the mechanisms behind the differences in lifespan.

Could have a major impact on society

In addition to advancing knowledge in the field, the project could also make a difference for society and individuals alike.

- Knowledge about lifespan is used in many different contexts, from pension systems to setting the retirement age and assessments of the population’s health. The better we understand the factors that affect lifespan, the stronger the basis we have for planning and decision-making, both as a society and as individuals, says Marie-Pier Bergeron Boucher.

She also points out that the project can offer valuable perspectives on inequality:

- We are seeing a great interest in understanding and reducing inequality in health and lifespan. But to do so effectively, we need to know more about what factors drive the differences and how these factors interact with each other. This is one of the things the project can help shed light on.

Unique data from Denmark and Finland

The project will be carried out using register data from Denmark and Finland, both of which have extensive data on their populations.

- We can learn a great deal from the data available to us in Denmark and Finland, but the goal is to ensure the knowledge and methods we develop can also be applied in countries that do not have access to detailed data, concludes Marie-Pier Bergeron Boucher.

The new project, which will run for five years, is entitled: The Tree of Lifespan. How the Length of Life Branches Across Multiple Social Determinants of Health.

The European Research Council has awarded a total of €705 million to 421 researchers across EU. Read the press release here.