Program Objectives

At SPA 2025, trainees will have the opportunity to:

• Attend “Brain Aging Basics” to learn foundational knowledge about brain changes older persons experience.   
• Tour Baycrest’s unique facilities, which consist of clinical healthcare and residential settings, basic and translational research and education centres, and innovation spaces.
• Gain research skills through interactive workshops on a variety of methodological and analytical approaches.
• Practice implementation skills for conducting research in real-world settings.
• Engage with novel, evidence-based training methods such as gamified learning platforms.
• Learn from people with lived experience (older persons and healthcare professionals who work with them) through meaningful roundtable discussions and meals.
• Interact with simulated participants and wear an ‘aging suit’ to experience physical conditions like frailty.
• Diversify their professional development toolkit with workshops on grant writing, peer review, knowledge mobilization and commercialization.
• Network with diverse stakeholders (e.g., other trainees, academics, clinicians, industry partners, older adults with lived experience) and gain professional skills for effective knowledge exchange.
• Learn about translational research case studies that have translated science and research into commercially available programs or products.
• Experience showcases of interdisciplinary team initiatives and innovation demonstrations that support the healthcare workforce and their training/education.
• Co-design a novel approach for a specific problem in aging with a diverse team.
• Gain an understanding of the studies and initiatives linked to the CIHR Institute of Aging's major initiatives: the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, and the Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment in Aging (BHCIA) Research Initiative, including the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA).