On November 6-8, 2024, the SHARE BERLIN Institute and Gateway to Global Aging Data jointly hosted the SHARE-Gateway User Conference in Berlin. This interdisciplinary event, attended by 66 participants, featured two workshop sessions on Gateway Harmonized Data and the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP), as well as 37 research presentations evaluating a range of topics covered in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and the broader international network of health and retirement studies (HRS-INS). 

The conference focused on cross-country and historical variation in aging, health, and systems supporting older individuals and their families, which are increasingly important areas of research as countries around the world are challenged with supporting rapidly growing aging populations. Both the Gateway to Global Aging Data and SHARE offer crucial resources for conducting such research, providing internationally comparable longitudinal individual-level data on health, aging, and retirement, as well as social and economic characteristics of older adults in 47 countries worldwide, 29 of which are covered in SHARE.

The conference began with two workshops that showcased SHARE and Gateway data and resources. In the first workshop session, led by Jenny Wilkens (University of Southern California), participants were guided through an example cross-country analysis using data from the Gateway Harmonized SHARE, the Mexican Health and Aging Study, and the Longitudinal Aging Study in India. In the second workshop, led by Emma Nichols (University of Southern California) and Alden Gross (Johns Hopkins University), participants were shown how to conduct analyses using HCAP data from Mexico, India, and England (The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing). While these workshops were underway, the SHARE BERLIN Institute ran a Symposium on Inequalities in Health, Retirement, and Care in an Ageing World. 

The second day of the conference kicked off with an introductory presentation on the collaboration between SHARE and the Gateway. David Richter (Director, SHARE BERLIN Institute) and Jinkook Lee (Director, Program on Global Aging, Health and Policy) gave a talk emphasizing their shared mission of providing data and resources to facilitate aging research. The two gave an overview of these resources and identified opportunities for collaboration in cross-country analyses and exposome research.  

Following their talk, Alden Gross gave an opening plenary on HCAP, highlighting the goals for developing the protocol, approaches to harmonization, room for expansion, prospects for harmonized dementia classification, and current research using HCAP. The second half of the day consisted of six sessions on research investigating HCAP and its applications, retirement, financial decisions, the COVID-19 pandemic, health and wellbeing, and new methods and issues in survey measurement. 

The final day picked back up with two more outstanding research presentation sessions – one on long-term care policy and the other on family, life experiences, and health. A plenary session then followed given by Dr. Richter on the SHARE BERLIN Institute’s future plans and approaches to address the current challenges facing SHARE. He discussed the importance of continued recruitment of refreshment samples for addressing the change in European populations, as well as linking to societal contextual information to track changes in social dynamics and structures. Due to the new data linkages and increasing technical complexity in the data, he also recognized the importance of continual improvement of the data documentation and resources for users. Dr. Richter closed by reiterating the importance of collaboration to achieve these future improvements. The conference presentations continued through the second half of the day with several fantastic sessions, including work on the topics of life histories and cohort studies, life expectancy, social and family networks, and cross-country comparisons of cognition. 

We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the conference planning, organization, and facilitation, all presenters for sharing their excellent work, and all participants who contributed to the wonderful discussions. Additionally, we are taking into account participant feedback on topics to cover in future conferences, including migration, mental health, pensions, long-term care, health, and well-being. The Gateway team hopes to continue hosting similar collaborative events focusing on these topics in the future.