The Brenda Strafford Centre on Aging's Aging Insights newsletter features aging-related research, education, and community initiatives that involve or may be of interest to UCalgary campus community members. | |
2025 EDIA Awards
The Centre on Aging's Manager, Dr. Chantelle Zimmer, received the UCalgary 2025 EDIA Award in the Management and Professional Category for her work advancing the Age-Friendly University (AFU) initiative.
Since 2021, Chantelle has championed the AFU initiative at UCalgary and led two foundational research projects. She conducted an environmental scan to identify a comprehensive age-friendly assessment tool for higher education. She then adapted this tool for a Canadian post-secondary and UCalgary specific context, leading a multidisciplinary team to assess the University's age-friendliness. These efforts resulted in an action plan designed to address gaps identified from the assessment and enhance age inclusivity for faculty, staff, students, and other campus community members across all core domains of the University.
Chantelle's work is positioning UCalgary as a leader in the global movement of creating age-friendly environments in higher education. Her research serves as a model for other post-secondary institutions looking to move from assessment to meaningful action.
Congratulations, Chantelle!
| | Addressing Social Frailty in Older Adults During Public Health Emergencies | | | | Older adults are at increased risk of social frailty, where an individual's social factors negatively interact with physical and cognitive challenges, heightening the likelihood of adverse outcomes as they age. The mandated social distancing and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a rise in the prevalence of social frailty. | | |
Dr. Jayna Holroyd-Leduc (Centre on Aging Academic Lead, UCalgary) recently collaborated with Dr. Monika Kastner (Associate Professor at the University of Toronto [UofT]) and others on a systematic scoping review (published in BMC Geriatrics 2024) to identify feasible social frailty interventions for use during public health emergencies.
Potentially effective interventions were identified across six categories: 1) psychological self-management; 2) self-management education; 3) leisure activity; 4) physical activity; 5) information communication technology; 6) social assistive robots and computer agents.
| Drs. Holroyd-Leduc and Kastner, along with graduate students Brooklynn Fernandes (UCalgary) and Krystle Amog (UofT), will lead a workshop at the international Pandemic EVIDENCE Collaboration conference in Banff, AB this May. The workshop will focus on developing strategies to effectively implement social frailty interventions during public health emergencies. Findings from the scoping review are also guiding further research to address social frailty. This includes research being led by Dr. Kastner, in collaboration with the UCalgary Centre on Aging and other partners across Canada, to co-design the first-ever social frailty intervention specifically tailored to meet the needs of diverse older adults. | |
March 7, 2025
Closing the gap: How the O'Brien Institute is driving change in women's health
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March 6, 2025
With public recreation 'falling behind' in Calgary, how do we keep up?
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March 5, 2025
Multiple menopause symptoms linked to cognitive decline risk
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February 24, 2025
UCalgary student team wins medal for work on creating biosensor to speed detection of Alzheimer's
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May 2025 SSHRC Connection Grant
RSO detailed review deadline: April 17, 2025
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2025 Ignite Innovation Grants
RSO internal deadline: May 14, 2025
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Call for Collaborative Research Projects on the Brain
RSO detailed review deadline: May 14, 2025
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Transdisciplinary Connector Grants
Next deadline: June 1, 2025
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VPR Catalyst Grants
Next deadline: June 1, 2025
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| | Visit the UCalgary database for more research funding opportunities: | | | |
Canadian Association on Gerontology 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting
October 23 - 25, 2025 | Montreal, QC
Abstract submission deadline: April 15
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The WHO Ageism Scale - A New Way to Measure Ageism
April 28, 2025 | Online
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Accessible Cities and Societies Showcase
April 24, 2025 I Calgary, AB
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Canadian Geriatrics Society 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting
May 29 - 31, 2025 | Toronto, ON
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| | UCalgary KMb25: Knowledge to Impact Series | | KMb'25 - Mobilizing Knowledge for Impact is a webinar series that aims to support and guide researchers in effectively mobilizing knowledge to maximize research impact, with a focus on tangible actions and skills. | | |
Canada should raise retirement age to 67 to address labour shortages: report
March 19, 2025
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Elderly patients can deteriorate hourly in the ER: Team works against the clock
March 15, 2025
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Researchers unravel menopause timing
February 25, 2025
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Rethinking retirement: Communities designed for aging in place
February 24, 2025
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| | News to share? We would love to learn about your research, an award you received, a grant you received, or an event you are attending. Please send us your content! | | | |
The Brenda Strafford Centre on Aging is a cross-faculty aging hub whose mission is to create an ecosystem for innovation in age-inclusive environments, practices, and policies. We are focused on catalyzing networks and leading collaborative innovations centered on older adults through education, research, and community engagement. Our vision is to achieve optimal health and well-being for older adults driven by evidence and in an inclusive manner.
The University of Calgary, located in the heart of Southern Alberta, both acknowledges and pays tribute to the traditional territories of the peoples of Treaty 7, which include the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprised of the Siksika, the Piikani, and the Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations). The City of Calgary is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta (Districts 5 and 6).
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