UMass Amherst and Mass General Brigham have landed a $24,499,836 competing renewal grant from the National Institute on Aging to keep funding research into artificial intelligence tools that help older adults and people with Alzheimer’s disease stay in their own homes. The five-year award continues a federally backed research center that has already funded 53 projects since 2021 and will now expand its reach to partners across the country.
The grant extends a program called MassAITC — short for the Massachusetts AI and Technology Center for Connected Care in Aging & Alzheimer’s Disease — according to UMass Amherst. The university says the new funding is a five-year continuation of previous National Institute on Aging support, which totaled approximately $20 million between 2021 and 2026. The center’s mission, per the same announcement, is to foster research and development of AI-enhanced technologies that support healthy aging in place for older adults and people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
That mission speaks to a well-documented preference among older Americans. More than 90% report they would prefer to stay in their own homes as they age, the university notes, even though chronic illnesses including Alzheimer’s disease can make that difficult without extensive support. MassAITC was built to close that gap by funding technology that keeps people safely at home longer.
Five Years, 53 Projects, Six Technology Domains
Since launching in 2021 with its original National Institute on Aging grant, MassAITC has funded a total of 53 projects, most of them industry-academic partnerships or industry-led efforts, the center reports. The work has explored a range of technologies and health challenges related to aging in place.
One recent funding round illustrates the scale of that work. The center’s third round of grant funding, totaling $2.3 million, went to 11 pilot programs focused on AI, technology and aging in the home environment, according to the UMass Amherst College of Information and Computer Sciences. Those Year 3 pilots covered caregiver support, chronic pain monitoring, cognitive impairment, blood-pressure monitoring, phishing protection and at-home motor-function monitoring.
UMass Amherst’s research infrastructure includes a sleep monitoring lab, an mHealth lab and a DataCore group.
From Lab Pilot to Real-World Product
MassAITC has supported work using AI for dementia caregiver support groups.
Leadership and What Comes Next
MassAITC is housed at UMass Amherst and is a collaboration between Manning CICS, the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing and Massachusetts General Hospital. It is led by three principal investigators from UMass Amherst and Massachusetts General Hospital, according to the center’s own Who We Are page. Benjamin Marlin, a professor in UMass Amherst’s Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, co-directs the center. MassAITC works on technologies for healthy aging and dementia care. Deepak Ganesan, also a Manning CICS professor, serves as a co-director alongside Marlin.
Sudeshna Das and Steven Arnold are part of the center’s leadership team.
With the new funding in place, MassAITC will continue supporting research through facilities and resources at UMass Amherst and Mass General Brigham, while establishing a national network of pilot partners.
Pilot Funding Proposal Call
MassAITC has issued a call for pilot-award proposals, with an emphasis on industry partnerships and translating research.
MassAITC is supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under award number P30AG073107.
