The New Brunswick Health Research Foundation (NBHRF), in collaboration with the AGE–WELL Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE), is launching Advancing Policies and Practices in Technology and Aging (APPTA), an innovation hub dedicated to building tech that supports healthy aging.
AGE-WELL NCE said the APPTA hub, which officially opened on May 16 in Fredericton, will focus mainly on developing technologies and solutions for policy, program, and service challenges in the field of technology and aging. The hub is meant to allow Canadians to benefit from emerging technologies that foster independent living and improve the quality of life for aging adults.
“The new hub is an important initiative that will support the development of policies, practices, and services across Canada that harness the power of technology to promote healthy aging.”
“The new hub is an important initiative that will support the development of policies, practices, and services across Canada that harness the power of technology to promote healthy aging,” said Lisa Harris, New Brunswick’s minister of seniors and long-term care. “We are delighted to be the host province for a hub that will be a national resource for policymakers, researchers, clinicians, and others working to implement novel technologies that will improve the health and wellbeing of older Canadians and their caregivers.”
The APPTA hub will help entrepreneurs take their ideas to market by connecting them to end users, policymakers, and service providers. AGE-WELL NCE said it will also bring training opportunities for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from the field of technology and aging. AGE-WELL and NBHRF will jointly fund the salaries of four individuals annually.
“Health research and social innovation is crucial to finding practical solutions to the challenges we are facing (in New Brunswick). Existing and novel technologies, applied to the right people, at the right place and at the right time, hold the key to making sure our Canadian seniors age well, and are assisted by programs and services adapted to their needs,” said Bruno Battistini, president, CEO, and scientific director of NBHRF and a co-sponsor of the hub. “This hub will promote knowledge-sharing and effective transfer of needed technologies right across Canada.”
The launch of the APPTA hub comes on the heels of several announcements made in New Brunswick. Last week, New Brunswick’s provincial announced it will provide $63.6 million in funding for two of the innovation agencies, one of which was the NBHRF. Also last week, the University of New Brunswick announced a partnership with Israel-based CyberSpark to spur greater cybersecurity research.