January 2023 – Dr. Heather McKay (PA) with co-leads Dr. Joanie Sims Gould (UBC); Dr Dawn Mackey (SFU); Dr. Farinaz Havaei (UBC), and the Active Aging Research Team have been in receipt of $6.8M in funding from the Healthy Cities Implementation Science (HCIS) Team Grants.

Professor McKay and her interdisciplinary, multisectoral team were awarded $3M from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) over 6 years for their research that aims to promote healthy aging. Professor McKay is also co-PA on a companion grant ($1.2M National Health and Medical Research Council) awarded to Australian colleagues who will replicate some projects in Australia.

The vision of their international Healthy Cities-Implementation Science Team in Healthy Aging is to integrate implementation science principles and approaches to counter the epidemics of physical inactivity, loneliness and social isolation in older people who live in medium- and large-sized cities. Their implementation science training platform will endeavour to recruit, train and mentor the next generation of implementation scientists.