Geronpreneurship Innovation Festival 2026

The Geronpreneurship Innovation Festival (GIF) 2026 was Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS)’s flagship platform for bringing innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers, policymakers, practitioners and lifelong learners together around longer-lived societies. The 2026 festival took place on 26 August 2026 at Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre, under the theme “The Power of Purpose in Ageing: Our Future Chapter” (SUSS, Geronpreneurship Innovation Festival 2026, accessed 29 August 2026). GIF is a platform and event, not a general university course, a healthcare entitlement or a guarantee of investment for participating ventures.

Programme and participants

The festival’s programme combined six components: future-of-ageing panels, an innovation and imagination exhibition, the Pitch for Good gerontology entrepreneurship competition, a marketplace of products and services, experience-and-play activities, and networking and meeting zones (SUSS, Geronpreneurship Innovation Festival 2026, accessed 30 August 2026). This mix connects education, applied research, entrepreneurship and community participation; it does not mean that every exhibitor or finalist received funding, clinical validation or public-sector adoption.

Ageing, purpose and geronpreneurship

GIF 2026 framed ageing as more than a medical issue. SUSS describes geronpreneurship as bringing together education, research and partnerships to develop practical solutions for an ageing society, with attention to purpose, independence, contribution and human-centred design (SUSS, Welcome Remarks at GIF 2026, accessed 29 August 2026). The concept therefore covers social, community, design and technology responses as well as health-related innovation; it should not be reduced to a startup category for medical devices.

Relationship to the GOOD Incubator

The festival was also the setting for SUSS’s launch of the GOOD Incubator, a separate incubation platform for startups and social ventures developing solutions for social and environmental impact, including healthy longevity. SUSS said the launch was introduced to more than 400 attendees from active-ageing centres, social-service organisations, startups, businesses, researchers, students, policymakers and community partners (SUSS, GOOD Incubator launch, 26 August 2026). The incubator is therefore an initiative announced at GIF 2026, not another name for the festival itself.