The “British-Italian Partnership Programme” has given me the unique chance to start a formal collaboration between a team of exercise physiologists working at the University of Strathclyde under my supervision and two Italian teams of young bioengineers from the Institute of Motor Science, Rome and the Polytechnic of Turin. The research will explore the effect of novel exercise programmes aimed at improving performance in older individuals, focusing on the underlying neural and biomechanical mechanisms of adaptation. The young researchers will benefit from the exciting opportunity of working in foreign laboratories and I hope that the project will reach a stage where we can apply for major funding.