Pathways to partnership: New initiative supports collaborating with older adults for enhanced health and aging research

Partnering with people with lived experience in community engagement and knowledge sharing activities are essential to enhance the quality and impact of patient-oriented research. This fall, the Collaborative is launching an initiative for McMaster researchers and trainees to facilitate engagement with older adults and caregivers, as experts, in research.

The Community Engagement and Knowledge Mobilization for Health and Aging Fund provides funding and supports for activities that often fall outside traditional research funding structures, but are crucial to facilitate working in partnership to improve health care systems and practice, including: 

• Engagement and relationship building: Community events and initiatives that connect researchers with stakeholders to identify research priorities and questions. 

• Knowledge sharing and integration: Support for activities that are planned and co-created with partners to disseminate research findings to the public, health care providers, and policymakers, for example, through events, presentations, reports, videos, and more. 

Building on the success of our Partnership in Research Fellowship, this pilot initiative will expand our support for researchers and trainees and provide a platform for facilitating partnerships and knowledge translation in health and aging research.  

Applications will open in September 2024. For more information, please visit our website later this summer or contact the Collaborative directly.