CENIE

The International Center on Longevity (CENIE) is a leading institution in the Iberian and Ibero-American space. Since 2017, it has served as a meeting point for science, public policy, and civil society to address the challenges and opportunities of longevity-driven societies. 

Born with the support of the European INTERREG-POCTEP program and promoted by the General Foundation of the University of Salamanca, CENIE has, from the outset, counted on the collaboration of major institutions in Spain and Portugal, such as the Spanish National Research Council, the Universities of Salamanca and Vigo, the Economic and Social Council of Spain, the Portuguese Economic and Social Council, the Directorate-General for Health of Portugal, the University of Algarve, and the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança. This institutional foundation has helped consolidate a distinct voice that combines strategic vision, scientific legitimacy, and innovative capacity. 

In a world where living longer has become the norm rather than the exception, CENIE works to turn longevity into a lever for collective progress. It does not limit itself to studying what is changing—it proposes how to change it. Its mission is clear: that longevity should not be seen as a challenge to manage, but as a horizon to pursue with fairness, intelligence, and purpose. 

Longevity as a Civilizational Compass 

CENIE is founded on a core belief: longevity is not a phenomenon that concerns only older adults, but a structural transformation that is reshaping the life course, intergenerational relationships, and the foundations of our social organization. Alongside digital and ecological transitions, it is one of the great drivers of change in the 21st century. 

But living longer is not enough. Living better is essential. This is why CENIE speaks not only of life expectancy, but of healthy life expectancy. Its approach places well-being, autonomy, dignity, participation, and a meaningful life at the center. With an intergenerational perspective, it strives to ensure that longevity is not a privilege for the few, but a shared promise and a right to be claimed in terms of social justice and collective well-being. 

Three Pillars for Structural Change 

CENIE’s work is structured around three interdependent focus areas: 

• Longevity-driven societies, which calls for a deep revision of the social contract, age narratives, and the organization of life stages. 
• Healthy life expectancy, which promotes longevity with physical, emotional, and social health, rooted in prevention and ethical care. 
• The longevity economy, which envisions an economic model that fully harnesses the social and productive potential of a population living longer. 

Through these three pillars, CENIE produces rigorous knowledge, translates findings into concrete proposals, weaves cross-sector alliances, and tests applied solutions. Its work ranges from local to global, from academic to political, and from technical to cultural. 

A Consolidated Trajectory, a Recognized Signature 

In just a few years, CENIE has demonstrated both its capacity for influence and its potential for transformation. It has led pioneering research in areas such as education, community-based action to address unwanted loneliness and social isolation, and financial well-being, among others. Its digital platform has surpassed three million users, becoming a vibrant space for dialogue, outreach, and learning. 

This capacity is also underpinned by a broad international network of collaboration, comprising universities, research centers, and renowned experts in fields such as public health, the biology of aging, psychology, the longevity economy, sociology, urban studies, and behavioral science. This network not only provides scientific support to CENIE’s initiatives but also forms an intellectual and operational ecosystem committed to the social transformation that longevity requires. 

Science and Society: A Necessary Alliance 

CENIE holds that longevity must not be only an institutional or scientific agenda—it must be a collective project for social transformation. For this reason, it fosters committed interaction between science and citizens, building a two-way relationship that acknowledges both the right of the public to be empowered by the knowledge it funds, and the responsibility of the scientific system to open up, explain, and share its findings with clarity, ethics, and a public-minded purpose. 

A longevity-driven society will only be sustainable if it is one in which people actively participate in shaping their life horizons. Knowledge must not be confined to ivory towers. It must be a living, accessible, and shared resource—one that enables people to make informed decisions, to care better, to understand more deeply, and to envision the future with hopeful clarity. 

Critical Thought, Not Complacency 

CENIE does not rely on simplified or self-indulgent narratives. It acknowledges the contradictions of our time. Longevity creates opportunities, yes, but it also reveals social divides, pressures existing welfare models, and challenges deeply ingrained cultural assumptions. The paradigm shift is far from resolved. It requires time, unlikely alliances, and sustained social pedagogy. 

This is why CENIE’s work embraces complexity. It explores the tensions between rural and urban contexts, between generations that do not always connect, between technological innovation and human vulnerability. It understands that no cultural shift can be imposed from above—and that speaking of longevity also means speaking of inequality, invisible caregiving, loneliness, and fear of the future. But it also means speaking of vitality, new connections, and a reconstructed common sense. 

An Institution as a Bridge 

CENIE serves as a bridge between worlds: between scientific knowledge and policymaking, between the senior generation and the youth who have yet to understand that longevity will be their story too, between academia and everyday life, between Europe and Latin America. 

It is neither a traditional think tank nor a service platform. It is a bridge-institution, capable of thinking long-term without losing sight of the urgency of the present. Capable of convening those who rarely share a table. Capable of giving language, structure, and vision to a phenomenon that is reshaping everything. 

Transforming longevity into a collective opportunity—this is CENIE’s commitment, where science, ethics, and society come together to ensure longer lives with quality, meaning, and social justice.