Canada joins AAL

For the first time Canada will be an official partner in the upcoming Active Assisted Living (AAL) call. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the official Canadian representative for the AAL General Assembly.

The 2016 call on Living Well with Dementia will feature the Canadian partner organisations: CIHR Institutes of Ageing and of Health Services and Policy Research, AGE-WELL NCE and TVN. This provides a unique and exciting opportunity for other AALA members to collaborate with Canadian researchers in providing integrated ICT solutions to support the wellbeing of people living with dementia, and their communities.

The Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) is the Canadian government’s health research investment agency. CIHR’s mission is to create new scientific knowledge and to enable its translation into improved health, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened health care system for Canadians. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to more than 13,000 health researchers and trainees across Canada. For more information see www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca

AGE-WELL NCE The AGE-WELL NCE (Ageing Gracefully across Environments Using Technology to Ensure Well-being, Engagement and Long Life) is a federally-funded network of centres of excellence to support Canadian research and innovation in the area of technology and ageing. Its aim is to improve the quality of life of older adults and caregivers and produce economic and social impact for the benefit of Canadians and the global community. For more information see www.agewell-nce.ca

TVN (Technology Evaluation in the Elderly Network) is Canada’s network for frail elderly and late-life care solutions, federally funded through the Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program.The Network supports the generation of new knowledge through original research, facilitates knowledge sharing and trains the next generation of health care professionals and scientists to improve health care outcomes for this vulnerable and growing population. For information on TVN see www.tvn-nce.ca

Active and healthy ageing is a powerful European research topic. In September 2015 the AAL Forum took place in Ghent, Belgium in collaboration with iMinds. Insight Publishers produced an executive summary for the event, available here