Sara Santini is senior researcher at the Centre for Socio-Economic Research on Ageing at IRCCS-INRCA (National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing) in Ancona, Italy, where she started working in 2000.
She is graduated in Social Science at the “Alma Mater Studiorum” university of Bologna, and in she achieved the degree in violin at the Conservatory “L. D’Annunzio”, Pescara (Italy), in 2001.
Moreover, she achieved a Master in the management of healthcare systems at the Polytechnic University of the Marche Region, Faculty of Economic in 2013.
She is professor of “Sociology of health” at the Polytechnic University of the Marche Region, Faculty of Medicine-Nursing Sciences (academic years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021).
She is currently achieving her PhD in Gerontology at the University of Vechta (Germany).
Her research interests are focused on:
- formal and informal care
- intergenerational relationships and ageism
- older people living in residential settings
- home care services and social-health integrated services for older people and informal caregivers
- active ageing, retirement and ICT-based technology promoting active aging.
She as an extensive experience in qualitative data analysis but she also dealt with numerous quantitative projects along her career. She coordinated numerous national and international research projects in the field of gerontology.
Recently, she was the principal investigator for INRCA within the “Me-We project -Psychosocial Support for Promoting Mental health and wellbeing among adolescent young carers in Europe” (2018-2021).
She is currently involved as principal investigator in two EU-funded projects: “AgeWell” (AAL programme), developing a virtual coach for promoting active ageing among older adults in transition from work to retirement; “HERO” (Erasmus+ Programme), designing and delivering an “on the job” elderly health care training for migrants and refugees from Northern Africa and Middle East countries.
