“GROW – Gerontological Research On Well-Being” is a doctoral program hosted at the Faculty of Human Sciences and supported by the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences and the Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne. GROW aims at identifying factors that hinder or promote well-being of people up to their senior years in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) to subsequently develop measures of improvement and/or maintenance of their status quo. The doctoral program is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia within the funding scheme “Fortschritt NRW”.

All doctoral projects at GROW are meant to contribute to an age-friendly culture in NRW. Based on a life course perspective, all doctoral students of GROW pursue their research interest within one of the following themes:

1. Aging between civil society, economics and government
2. Living arrangements and neighborhood
3. Influence of migration and historical events
4. Psychological and physical impairments until death

The disciplines involved are: health economics, pedagogics, political science, public health, ethics, psychology, rehabilitation sciences and sociology. Eleven doctoral projects employ methods of inter- and transdisciplinary research. In order to reach this aim, the doctoral students develop their research projects not only with university professors but with non-academic mentors as well. Besides, self-organized conferences and workshops ensure communication between older people, non-academic experts and researchers in order to include all relevant perspectives.