Welcome Address by SUSS Provost, Professor Robbie Goh at GIF 2025

Date: 11 Jul 2025

Distinguished guests, speakers, industry partners, and participants, 

  1. Welcome to all of you on behalf of the Singapore University of Social Sciences. The Geronpreneurship Innovation Festival 2025 is SUSS’ signature event.

     

  2. This event brings together innovators, caregivers, policymakers, educators, students, and active agers. It is a teaching and learning festival, a social innovation platform, a networking event, a call to action and many other things. What ties it all together is an awareness that Singapore is fast approaching super-ageing status, and that more attention needs to be focused on this development.

     

  3. While a super-aged society brings a lot of needs, it also offers us many opportunities:
    • To bring about innovation and thought leadership in the area of active ageing;
    • To tap into the rich well of experience that seniors have accumulated;
    • To create the kind of society that we want to see, one in which ageing is treated with respect, honour, dignity and purpose.  

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  4. This is a timely reminder to everyone that ageing affects all of us. It's a truism, but it's worth repeating. We're either ageing ourselves, or we know somebody; we are caregivers for somebody who is ageing, or we will one day be in that company.

     

  5. This is not just a festival, and it's not just a timely calling, but it's a very needful one. It's a high purpose, and it's a calling that sits squarely within the SUSS wheelhouse and expertise.

     

  6. SUSS contributes to gerontology and active ageing in several ways. Firstly, gerontology is an important part of our curriculum. We have courses at the undergraduate level, CET and graduate level, all the way up to PhD. And I'm happy to say that many of the significant players in the gerontology industry are products of the SUSS education.

     

  7. Secondly, we partner with like-minded institutions and organisations to level up eldercare and active ageing in both Singapore and beyond our shores. For example, last year, SUSS partnered with SG Assist to launch the Age+ Living Lab – a space where seniors, caregivers, and innovators come together to co-create assistive technologies that support ageing in place.

     

  8. We also piloted Singapore’s first LifeCourse in Online Narrative (LION) platform, in partnership with the NEON International Research Consortium. By collecting and sharing the lived stories of older adults and caregivers, LION provides practical insights that guide policy and improve care practices.

     

  9. In April this year, we announced our partnership with the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), and Institut Darul Ridzuan (IDR) to transform Ipoh, Malaysia, into a city-scale living lab. This first-of-its-kind initiative moves beyond thinking about living labs as isolated settings but really integrates all of them and looks at how we can innovate at a city scale, city level.

     

  10. And the third area in which SUSS champions gerontology is through entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is already a big part of the SUSS mission, and we try to instil this in our students, those who have that attitude and interest. Together with our very good partners, we build in all kinds of social entrepreneurship opportunities, mentorships, hackathons, and even funding where we can. Hence, it's logical for us to extend this into geronpreneurship. As I said before, ageing is a very major issue that Singapore society, and many of our societies in the neighbouring countries, are facing as well.

     

  11. Today, you will hear from global thought leaders sharing their perspectives on ageing and innovation. You will experience live demos and witness showcases of age-inclusive solutions. You will also meet various startups that are transforming everything from digital health to inclusive design.

     

  12. One of the anchors of today’s festival is the Pitch for Good 2025, our regional pitch competition that spotlights bold startups solving challenges faced by our ageing population.

     

  13. But more than anything else today, and the Geronpreneurship Innovation Festivals in the years to come, it's about connections. Connections across generations, disciplines and sectors. It's about the meeting ground of enterprise and social good of young and elderly caregivers and care recipients. In events such as today's, we're all reminded of our common civic purpose and our common humanity as well. So, today's festival is a key event in SUSS gerontology and geronpreneurship work.

     

  14. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us and for your ongoing efforts to support SUSS, as well as the difference that you're making in the entrepreneurship and elder care sector in general.

     

  15. With the hard work of the SUSS community, and the indispensable collaboration of our external stakeholders and all of you here, SUSS will continue to fulfil its mission, not just this year but in years to come, to strengthen the active ageing and eldercare landscape.

     

  16. Thank you very much for coming, and I wish you all a very innovative and interesting festival.