The ERA initiative grew out of the ideas and issues raised by a group of PhD students who started meeting regularly when Prof Helen Bartlett was Director of the Australasian Centre on Ageing at the University of Queensland, Australia.  Through her wide experience with students, academics and organisations involved in ageing research, Prof Bartlett came to recognise that the multidisciplinary nature of ageing research left many RHD students working in isolation, and lacking opportunities to meet fellow researchers in ageing. It became clear that there was a need to somehow bring these disparate and dispersed students together, and provide them with opportunities to form networks and undertake collaborative endeavours. 

To this end, the first conference for Emerging Researchers in Ageing was held at the University of Queensland in 2002, and became an annual event.  The first four annual ERA Conferences were convened by the Australasian Centre on Ageing at the University of Queensland, after which the conference started to travel.  It was convened by University of Sydney in 2006, followed by Adelaide University in 2007, Curtin University in 2008 and Monash University in 2009.  The 2010 ERA conference will take place at the University of Newcastle on Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd October, and will be convened by Professor Julie Byles and Associate Professor Lynne Parkinson of the Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing at the University of Newcastle.  For the first time in 2010, the conference will be extended over two full days, with three postgraduate workshops held concurrently on the morning of the first day, and the conference proper starting after lunch on the first day.  Further information about the 2010 conference can be found under ERA 2010. 

To gain greater insight into the needs of RHD students in ageing research, a national survey of emerging researchers in ageing was undertaken in 2005 (see Bartlett, Underwood & Peach (2007), Australasian Journal on Ageing, 26, 4).  Following this, from 2007 the ERA initiative received ongoing support from the ARC/NHMRC Research Network in Ageing Well (RNAW) and the University of Queensland, enabling the initiative to take on a much broader role in Australia and internationally.   With this support, ERA has been able to instigate a number of new initiatives, including masterclasses, workshops, seminars, domestic and international exchange programmes, regular newsletters and information updates, the development of this website, and employment of part-time staff to co-ordinate and manage ERA activities.  These initiatives were developed largely from the outcomes of the 2005 survey, and in 2010, a follow-up survey is being conducted to evaluate how well the initiative has worked over the past three years. 

The inaugural Masterclass for Emerging Researchers in Ageing was held in March 2008 at the University of Queensland, and the ERA initiative hosted 36 RHD students from 14 universities around Australia at this two-day workshop.  Evaluation of the activity showed that this was a valuable learning experience for the Masterclass delegates (see Bartlett & Peach (2008), Australasian Journal on Ageing, 27, 4), and a second, similarly successful Masterclass was held in February 2009, also at the University of Queensland. 

A series of virtual seminars also commenced in 2008, using Access Grid technology at the University of Queensland.  Using this technology allows a large number of ‘nodes' around Australia to be visible and to interact with each other.  For this reason, the virtual seminars usually involve 8 or 10 nodes, and there are usually 30 to 40 participants at each seminar.  In 2009, we held the first ERA OZ and ERA UK linkup and two such linkups are planned for 2010.  In 2010, two New Zealand nodes are also booked to join us for the virtual seminar series.  Details of the seminars are posted under Events.

And finally, in 2009, this website was deployed to provide a central forum for emerging (and emerged) researchers in ageing to source information, keep up to date with events and news in ageing research, and have access to forums, discussion boards and notice boards that will increase opportunities to interact with each other online.