The Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health provide research and administrative support to increase innovation, impact, and productivity of our faculty and student affiliates, as well as our research partners.

We have identified three primary strengths on which to advance leading-edge research and support local, national, and international partnerships and collaborations. Crosscutting research approaches include observational and experimental designs and data collection, an emphasis on improving health services and technological innovations, and advances in data analytics and rigorous replication research.

Faculty affiliates lead each area and hold regular meetings to share current and planned research activities and develop new opportunities for grants and collaborative research.

Our three research initiatives: Cognitive Health, Lifelong Health, and Vulnerability and Frailty build on a strong legacy of research at UVic. The UVic strategic priorities are advanced by the Institute’s new priorities have been set to advance research excellence and impact on an aging society.

As an internationally recognized research institute, our local, national and international research activity and knowledge mobilization promotes student success, and facilitation of collaboration, partnerships and interdisciplinary approaches on campus and with our external colleagues.

The Institute supports several major research projects, a new direction that strengthens key partnerships and that will provide lasting scientific resources to Institute affiliates and increase collaborative research and training opportunities.

• The Institute continues to have a primary leadership role in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), with statistical analysis workshops to support researchers across Canada.
• The Neil and Susan Manning Cognitive Health Initiative (CHI), in partnership with Island Health and UBC, aims to improve earlier diagnosis and increase treatment options for dementia through the development of state-of-the-art digital tools and integration of research protocols into patient care.
• A CIHR-funded project, ePRO, in partnership with Island Health, and Ayogo, builds on the BC Self-Management (IALH Ladner office) Health Coach Program by incorporating home health monitoring devices to evaluate how additional day-to-day information on health status, symptoms, and self-management practices can improve the health of patients with complex care needs living independently.
• Our existing partnership with the Oregon Roybal Center on Aging and Technology (ORCATECH) provides smart-home technology and daily health device data. This ORCATECH Lifelab BC platform will extend beyond the study be part of a larger network of US-based sites to advance basic and applied research to detect changes in cognitive and physical functioning, permitting evaluation of new assistive technologies in partnership with UVic CanAssist.