PhD Researcher in Longevity Science | Healthcare Innovation, Economics & the Future of Healthy Ageing
Rositsa Nikolova is a PhD researcher at the University of National and World Economy (UNWE), Sofia, whose work focuses on the emerging field of longevity science and its broader economic, technological, and societal implications.
Her transition into longevity research is rooted in eight years of professional experience in the private healthcare sector, where she worked as a Marketing Manager in the medical-device industry, with a particular focus on CPAP devices and hearing aids. Working at the intersection of healthcare, technology, patients, and the market provided her with first-hand insight into the challenges associated with chronic and age-related conditions, as well as the growing demand for technologies that can preserve health and quality of life.
This experience led her to a broader question that now shapes her academic work: can healthcare evolve from primarily managing disease and age-related decline towards a paradigm focused on extending healthspan, preserving human function, and enabling people to live healthier lives for longer?
Her research examines the evolution of scientific theories of ageing and the emergence of longevity science as an interdisciplinary field. She explores how our understanding of ageing has developed from evolutionary theories of senescence to contemporary approaches to longevity extension, while examining the implications of these developments for economics, business, healthcare systems, technology, and society.
A particular focus of her work is the intersection between longevity science and economic development. She is interested in how advances in the understanding of ageing and emerging longevity technologies could reshape healthcare markets, generate new business models, stimulate innovation, and influence the way societies respond to demographic ageing.
Her academic interests also encompass transhumanism, posthumanism, longevity extension, and the societal implications of technologies that may fundamentally alter the human ageing process. By bringing together perspectives from economics, healthcare, business, and longevity science, she seeks to contribute to the emerging discussion about not only how long humans may live, but how societies, economies, and healthcare systems should adapt to longer and healthier lives.
With a background spanning both private-sector healthcare and academic research, Rositsa brings a distinctive perspective to the longevity ecosystem—connecting real-world experience in healthcare markets with an interdisciplinary academic exploration of the science, economics, and societal consequences of extending healthy human lifespan.
Her work reflects a broader conviction that longevity should not be viewed solely as a biomedical challenge, but as a transformative opportunity requiring collaboration across science, medicine, technology, business, economics, and public policy.