The Northern Ireland Cohort for the Longitudinal Study of Ageing (NICOLA) will look at health, lifestyles and financial situations of 8,500 people as they grow older monitoring how their circumstances change over a 10 year period. The study is being carried out by Queens University Belfast in collaboration with an inter-disciplinary panel of experts in various fields of ageing. Through the NICOLA study, Queens will give policy makers in Northern Ireland the same level of information as their counterparts in Britain and Ireland that could help to shape at least 10 major government policies.