The 13th annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery Meeting is a non-profit conference.
ARDD grows from a small forum in 2014 to a separate and independent meeting with over 1,000+ participants onsite and over 10,000 watching online in 2025.
From its start as a small forum during EMBO Conference, ARDD has expanded, including short talks of young scientists, industry panel discussions, Longevity Medicine Day for physicians, Emerging Science & Technologies Workshop, Physics in Aging Biology Workshop, Replacement in Aging Workshop 2025, Molecular Nutrition Workshop 2025 and Inspire Longevity Program for high school students.
From 2014 till 2019 the ARDD Meeting was a part of bigger conferences (EMBO and Basel Life), in 2020 ARDD became an independent event. For most of its history, ARDD has been run on a shoestring with some support from our extensive close collaborators and KOLs in the field. From 2020 all the expenses, including travel and venue costs have to be covered by the ARDD organisers.
In the last few years, we received financial sponsorship to go alongside the in-kind support that we've had in previous years. That income is essential to our growth and is now helping us to secure the future of the ARDD Meeting. In the spirit of transparency, we would like to explain how we are creating and funding a sustainable network, where that money is coming from, where it goes, and what we plan for the future. We want to make sure that everyone — whether speaker, volunteer, organiser, sponsor or event participant — has the opportunity to see how the ARDD is paid for and organised.
Funding Sources
Corporate sponsorship
This is at present the main source of finance for the ARDD. We will need to raise a substantial amount via sponsorship to make it accessible and all of us are chipping in.
Ticket sales for the ARDD annual meeting
This will help to pay some of the costs of staging the event, but note that ticket sales do not cover all costs, even with capacity sales, as we think it's important to keep tickets affordable.
People
Morten Scheibye-Knudsen
with the ARDD team since 2016
Daniela Janina Bakula
with the ARDD team since 2019
Alex Zhavoronkov
with the ARDD team since 2014
Evelyne Yehudit Bischof
with the ARDD team since 2021
Max Unfried
with the ARDD team since 2022
Stephanie Tsang
with the ARDD team since 2022
Vadim Gladyshev
with the ARDD team since 2026
Jesse Poganik
with the ARDD team since 2026
Like any such social enterprise, ARDD is always in a state of growth and always adapting to changing circumstances. The above statement is meant as a guidance for readers so that they understand our position, and it is current as of April 2021. We will do our best to keep it up to date as and when new developments occur. If you have a specific question about anything in the above, please do get in touch.