NIA Funds Aging and Policy Center with UAlbany, Syracuse and Cornell

Older couple smiling — UAlbany, Syracuse University at Cornell received $1.5 million from the National Institute of Aging to fund the Center for Aging and Policy Studies.

A partnership among three universities received a $1.5 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to fund a center that focuses on improving the health, well-being and independence of older adults.

The Center for Aging and Policy Studies (CAPS), a partnership among UAlbany, Syracuse University and Cornell University, addresses a wide array of issues facing middle age and older adults and the families that care for them. Six UAlbany professors from five departments are involved in the consortium, which is based at Syracuse.

In its first year of the new funding, the center will bring together 39 scholars from the three universities whose research focuses on the demography and economics of aging. It will fund pilot projects and offer a colloquia series, visiting scholars program, grant mentoring program, methods training and a research incubator to foster collaborations among CAPS affiliates.

Benjamin Shaw, associate dean for research in the School of Public Health, is on the leadership team of the consortium. UAlbany faculty researchers include:

• Pinka Chatterji, associate professor of economics
• Zoya Gubernskaya, associate professor of sociology
• Julia Jennings, associate professor of anthropology
• Elizabeth Vasquez, associate professor of epidemiology & biostatistics
• Tse-Chaun Yang, associate professor of sociology

The principal investigator of the five-year grant is Jennifer Karas Montez, a sociologist and aging studies professor at Syracuse, and co-leads include along with Shaw and Montez include professors Janet Wilmoth and Douglas Wolf of Syracuse, and Kelly Musick of Cornell.

“This NIA grant recognizes CAPS as one of the leading research centers on the demography and economics of aging in the country,” said Shaw. “UAlbany is pleased to be a part of the interdisciplinary team working to improve the health and independence of older adults.”

This is the third time that CAPS has received funding from NIA. Previous grants were awarded in 1994-99 and 2009-14 when CAPS was single institution center at Syracuse.

For more information, visit the CAPS website.