2025-2026 Impact Report: Building Canada's Brain Economy for a Bold Future

Impact Announcements Blog 2026 Impact Report |

The 2025-2026 period marked a pivotal moment in Canada's history as our population officially reached super-aged status: one in five Canadians are now over the age of 65. This societal shift reflects remarkable gains in longevity while presenting a compelling opportunity to redefine how we support healthy aging, brain health, and caregiving to build a better future. 

At the same time, there is a globally recognized urgency to respond to rising rates of dementia and a widening gap between people’s lifespan and healthspan—the number of years we are able to live active, connected lives. Dementia cases are projected to hit 1.7 million nationally by 2050 at a cost of $110 billion annually, while the average healthspan lags nearly a decade behind average life expectancy. 

Canada continues to make great strides toward addressing the evolving challenges and opportunities of our new super-aged reality. Targeted investments in homegrown life sciences and critical technologies, supported by a new national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy focused on trust and adoption, are laying the groundwork for more innovative solutions to support aging and brain health, including dementia detection, prevention, treatment, and care. Canada has emerged as a key player on the international tech stage, garnering considerable recognition and foreign investment in support of trade and sovereignty. Canadian researchers and innovators are fully embracing the power of biotech, health tech, agetech, and AI to lengthen healthspan, bolster our workforce, maximize healthcare resources, and strengthen the economy. 

But innovation is never easy. Canada’s sharpest minds and most passionate problem solvers face persistent challenges in translating promising ideas into societal and economic impact. CABHI’s programs and initiatives are keeping pace, evolving in response to emerging innovation barriers, market opportunities, and industry trends.

Reflecting on the past year and looking forward to building upon our momentum, one truth plainly emerges: brain health is at once the most urgent societal challenge and economic opportunity of our time—valued at an estimated $6.2 trillion by 2050. New ideas and approaches will be increasingly necessary to augment people’s healthspan, attract foreign investments to Canada, create good jobs, and directly address the entire dementia continuum from prevention to care. CABHI will continue working on the front lines of innovation to realize our vision of a world where every older person can live with purpose, fulfilment, and dignity—with brain health at the core. 

Thank you to our Board of Directors, staff, Community of Innovation, and Baycrest community, without whom these accomplishments would not be possible. 

Joe Freedman
Board Chair

Dr. Allison Sekuler
President and Chief Scientist

Read the media release

Canadian innovators are harnessing emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, to improve brain health and quality of life for older Canadians. The Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation is helping turn promising research into real-world solutions, supporting Canadian businesses, driving innovation and creating new opportunities for economic growth.

The Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation

The Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation is at the forefront of developing and testing innovations that improve quality of life for older adults and families. Their work will help make important advancements in dementia detection, prevention, treatment, and care. The Government of Canada is proud to support their work in transforming brain health care for the benefit of all Canadians through the Strategic Science Fund.

The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions

Our 3 Strategic Objectives in Action

  • Build innovation capacities through purposeful collaboration to co-create impactful solutions.

  • Accelerate innovation from idea to impact, supporting the development, validation and adoption of aging and brain health solutions.

  • Transform the aging and brain health innovation ecosystem by forging dynamic partnerships and mobilizing knowledge to influence practices and policies.

  • $243M+
    in funding directed toward advancing innovative projects
  • $1B+
    in follow-on funding secured by CABHI-affiliated companies
  • $107M+
    levered in addition to CABHI’s government funding
  • 209,000+
    Older Canadians + caregivers engaged in projects
  • 6,700+
    High Qualified Personnel (HQP) involved in projects
  • 1M+
    People reached through CABHI-supported education, knowledge mobilization, and communication activities
  • $97M+
    In jobs created or sustained
  • 676
    Projects launched
  • 980+
    Products, practices + services developed
  • 369
    Solutions validated + evaluated in real-world settings
  • 295+
    Distinct solutions introduced into market or adopted into practice
  • 330
    Solutions procured with CABHI support

Impact to Date

The Power of Co-Design

96% of innovators said CABHI’s end-user validation services strengthened their solutions

The most impactful innovations are informed by diverse real-life experiences, but most of the time, innovations happen without important consultation with the end users: the people who will actually use the final product. At CABHI, co-design is not a single step in the innovation process; it is a guiding principle that shapes how the innovative solutions we support are developed, tested, and refined.

Leap, CABHI’s end-user engagement service for innovators, is where co-design happens. Often cited by innovators as one of the most formative components of our proprietary supports, it connects innovators directly with engaged end users who share insights on their wants and needs through focus groups, surveys, interviews, and usability testing. In the 2025/26 year, Leap collected feedback from over 1,200 end users to inform over 40 innovations across the entire project lifecycle.

While Leap helps inform innovation at a product level, the Lived Experience Council promotes co-design at CABHI from a broader lens. As a national group of older persons and care partners, the Council brings their wide-ranging expertise and experiences to inform CABHI’s operations, programs and activities.

The 2025/26 Council included 10 dedicated members with deep knowledge across business development, aging and brain health, human resources, and leadership activities, in addition to their personal experiences caring for aging loved ones and/or navigating the aging experience themselves.

By attending strategic planning meetings, project selection committees, and innovation judging panels across the globe, the Council lends their expertise and provides ongoing guidance across the organization to ensure voices of end users remain at the centre of decision-making.

Together, Leap and CABHI’s Lived Experience Council bridge the gap between innovation and real-world experience.

Beverley Shukyn, CABHI Lived Experience Council Member, at the 2025 Global Dementia Research + Innovation Showcase.

Developing Highly Qualified Talent for Canada’s Future

The future of aging and brain health in Canada will be shaped by the next wave of researchers and innovators. Students, recent graduates, and trainees are tackling some of the most complex challenges facing older Canadians and care partners today, but they need the right supports at the right time to translate their research into critical technology-enabled products and practices that make it into people’s hands where and when they need them most. However, many of these brilliant and burgeoning young professionals lack the specific skills, professional networks, and resources to bring their ideas out of the lab or classroom and into the real world. Without tailored supports, ideas stall, and opportunities for economic and health impact are lost through the cracks.

Investing in up-and-coming innovators, researchers, and scientists is key to creating a resilient economy, thriving workforce, and better health outcomes for older Canadians.

The NextGen Support Package (NextGen) and the CABHI Science Collaborative (CSC) are responding to this need

through funding, acceleration services, and robust support services—all designed to foster tomorrow’s big breakthrough from the minds of today’s academic achievers.

Lucas Monter, Founder of NeuroSpritz and CABHI NextGen Innovator, pitching at the 2026 NextGen Pitch competition.

Here are just a few stories of how the NextGen Support Package and the CABHI Science Collaborative are creating real impact across Canada.

Cogni: Early Dementia Detection Meets “Phoning It In”
Impact Programs 2026 Impact Report Blog NextGen
NextGen Innovator
NeuroSpritz: Taking the Wait out of Brain Signal Testing
2026 Impact Report Programs Impact Blog NextGen
CABHI Science Collaborative Spotlight: Saiful Hoque, PhD
CABHI Science Collaborative Programs Impact

Accelerating Canadian Innovation from Research to Commercialization for Public Benefit

In the current Canadian and global context, economic resilience and growth are paramount. Intrinsic to this is the need for decisive action to address the global dementia problem, estimated to cost Canadians over $110 billion annually by 2050. Paired with the increasingly complex needs of a now “super-aged” national population, the need for Canadian IP that supports aging, brain health, and longer healthspan has never been greater.

Canada is well-positioned as a global leader in agetech innovation—but persistent challenges can stall promising innovation at every stage of the innovation pipeline, from early ideas through to commercialization and global scale. Companies and researchers often get stuck in development and refinement, early validation, evidence of effectiveness, and clinical or therapeutic considerations. As companies and solutions mature, new barriers emerge

including real-world and clinical validation, further refinement, market access, and scale. CABHI’s core innovation programs are designed to address these barriers across the entire innovation pipeline, providing funding and a suite of proprietary acceleration services to help innovators achieve critical milestones in the development, validation, commercialization, and scale of aging and brain health solutions. Innovators are also connected with end users who actively participate in co-design, ensuring solutions are grounded in and validated by diverse lived experiences.

Researchers and point-of-care professionals affiliated with health research organizations can advance their solutions through Ignite, alongside early-stage companies from across Canada, with a focus on prototype development and early validation. As innovations mature, they can progress into Fuel, moving their innovation toward market readiness, commercialization, and scale. Starting this fall, Amplify will extend this pathway further, supporting later-stage innovations as they enter new markets and accelerate commercialization. Together, these programs create a pathway for innovators to progress through the entire innovation lifecycle—while accessing the funding, expertise, networks, and tailored support needed at each stage—strengthening the economy and Canada’s competitiveness on the global trade stage.

As Dr. Allison Sekuler explains, CABHI’s value lies not only in supporting innovation at different stages, but in helping innovators move through those stages faster:

“We’re really focused just on the aging and brain health space, but we cut across the entire innovation pipeline— all of the technology readiness levels, three through nine. We’ve already seen innovators in CABHI programs go from one end of the innovation spectrum all the way to the other, and they can do it so much faster in the CABHI ecosystem. We’re not just giving money; we’re actually giving all kinds of other support, and it’s really bespoke for what that innovator needs.”

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CABHI COMPANIES ATTRACT GLOBAL INVESTMENT INTO CANADA’S ECONOMY

As Canada works to strengthen its economy, boost productivity and global competitiveness, and increase capacity for the adoption of new technologies—all part of the country’s new AI for All Strategy—attracting foreign investment is a key priority. Many of the companies CABHI has supported over the years
have gone on to secure significant investments
from other countries, positioning Canada as a top player in the global critical technologies race.

After development, validation, and commercialization—the areas of focus for our core innovation programs—companies seek real-world adoption opportunities for their solutions. And innovative solutions are exactly what Canadian healthcare and community-based organizations need, now more than ever.

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, staffing levels across healthcare settings are under significant strain and are unlikely to be able to keep pace with the need for specialized care for older persons, including those living with cognitive decline. With healthcare and community-based organizations across the country under growing pressure to respond to rising rates of dementia and complex care needs, innovation is augmenting care capacity by solving operational challenges in real-time.

CABHI’s Discover + Adopt (D+A) program helps build innovation capacity in these settings by providing end-to-end support—from matching organizations with innovative solutions that directly address their most pressing challenges, to helping them adopt and sustain them, making it easier to deliver the best possible care to older persons while supporting caregivers along the way.

The program sources a catalogue of evidence-supported innovations, then matches participating organizations with solutions that address their unique pain points, from cognitive and mental health to healthcare delivery, quality of life, training, and mobility.

By connecting organizations with solutions that address their unique pain points and helping them navigate the implementation process, program participants not only address their challenges with innovation—often reducing burden, increasing productivity, and improving client quality of life—but are also able to build their capacity to adopt and sustain new innovations moving forward. Healthcare and community-based organizations that have worked with CABHI have reported immense benefits throughout the experience, namely:

  • 100% had an improved understanding of the innovation implementation and adoption process

  • 88% found CABHI-supported innovations had an impact on quality of life for clients and care partners

  • 40% planned to procure their CABHI-supported solution in the future

During the 2025/26 year, CABHI supported 26 healthcare and community-based organizations with $2.3M in funding to build innovation adoption capacity. Through funding, training, coaching, and peer-to-peer learning opportunities, the participating organizations will be supported throughout the adoption journey, from identifying challenges and evaluating solutions to implementation and long-term integration.

Advancing the Adoption of Innovation for better Healthspan and System Sustainability

  • Reducing Falls through Wearable Technology

    Dykeland Lodge wants to reduce falls— the most common cause of injury in older persons, often leading to hospitalization and loss of independence—in its longterm care home. XO Technology, an incoming CABHI Ignite participant, and its novel smart ring might be the right answer. Our D+A program is helping them find out.

    The wearable smart rings integrate directly with preexisting staff devices and track key health and activity data, helping identify factors that may contribute to falls. During the trial, residents were empowered to choose their ring colours and had them professionally fitted to ensure comfort, bringing them in as active participants in the adoption journey.

    “It is great to have the opportunity to try new technology that can be used to enhance the quality of life of the residents we support,” says Victoria Gagne, BRec, CTRS, Director of Recreation at Dykeland Lodge. “Without CABHI’s support, we would not have been able to have the opportunity to purchase the technology or hire staff who were able to support the project. The residents who are participating in the study truly feel the ring is keeping them safe.”

    While the project is still underway, if it proves successful, it will help care teams identify and address fall risks earlier, supporting resident safety while helping older persons maintain their independence.

  • Increasing Connectivity for Residents with Advanced Dementia

    For long-term care residents living with advanced dementia, maintaining social connections and reducing isolation can be a significant challenge. Group recreational activities often require verbal communication or extended attention spans, making it more difficult for residents with complex care needs to engage meaningfully in group activities—if at all. CABHI connected Luther Court Society with Sensory One’s OMI system to determine if this exciting new technology could be the perfect fit.

    “CABHI has helped Luther Court bring innovation directly into the everyday lives of residents living with advanced dementia,” says Carolyn Hoekstra, Director of Care and Community, Luther Court Society. “Their support has allowed us to trial technology that creates new possibilities for participation, connection, and enjoyment for residents who may otherwise have limited opportunities to engage in traditional group programming. Ultimately, it’s about finding new ways to enhance quality of life—and CABHI has helped make that possible.”

    The interactive projection system creates immersive experiences, allowing multiple residents to participate together through simple movement and visual interaction—no complex communication required. By creating new opportunities for engagement among residents living with advanced dementia, the project has the potential to reduce isolation, strengthen social connections, and enhance quality of life.

  • Making Transitions to and from Bed Safer for LongTerm Care Residents

    Falls are the leading cause of injury among older persons, making prevention a top priority. At Baycrest Terraces, care teams were hoping to gain insights into when residents were sleeping, waking, and preparing to leave their beds independently—a prime moment for falls.

    As one of the 26 2025/26 CABHI-supported D+A organizations, Baycrest Terraces is implementing Momo Medical’s BedSense (a CABHI-funded innovation): an under-mattress monitoring system designed to provide real-time insights into resident movement, heart rate, and breathing patterns. The technology alerts staff when a resident may be preparing to get out of bed, enabling early intervention when needed, but also promoting independence.

    “The pain point we’re trying to solve is to be able to have some insight into when people are sleeping, when they are in the bed, when they are out of the bed, but also we are trying to look for a noticeable reduction in falls,” says Debra Conway-Chung, Director, Residential and Community Programs at Baycrest. “This will be a game-changer for people who are looking for that little bit of an extra touch of care while still allowing autonomy.”

    BedSense stood out to Baycrest Terraces because of its non-intrusive design, ease of installation, and app-based reporting, which directly supports the organization’s strategic priorities related to both digital transformation and fall reduction.

    The team at Baycrest Terraces expects to see a reduction in falls and an increase in valuable data collection around residents’ sleep and awake patterns. Not only will residents receive better, more customized care by using BedSense, but Baycrest Terraces will be able to schedule staff accordingly.

Sensory One’s OMI projection system in use.

Mobilizing Knowledge and Market
Intelligence with AgeTech Insights

  • The Canadian 50+ Tech Market: Trends & Opportunities
    Technology is a part of everyday life for older Canadians

    + Daily use of smartphones, tablets, and computers is nearly universal

    + 60% say technology has made life easier

    + Growing adoption of wearables (41%) and smart home tools (39%)

    + Main driver of use is social connection (88%), ahead of convenience or entertainment

    Read Full Report
  • Designing Inclusive Innovation for the 50+ Market
    Technology use is high—but co-design is low

    Canadians 50+ are active digital users, but many do not feel reflected in the products they use.

    + Over 75% use technology daily for banking, connection, entertainment, or information

    + Fewer than 1 in 3 feel technology is designed with them in mind

    + Only 11% believe older adults are meaningfully included in design

    Read Full Report
  • Supporting Brain Health During Menopause
    Digital tools for symptom management are severely lacking

    Many women experience cognitive and emotional changes during menopause, but few are using digital tools designed for their needs.

    + 77% report symptoms such as memory, focus, mood, and sleep changes

    + Sleep is the most commonly reported challenge

    + 49% are not using any digital tools for symptom management

    + 58% are comfortable using digital technologies

    Read Full Report

Future state

The need for innovative aging and brain health solutions will only continue to grow. Building on its existing suite of innovation programs, CABHI is launching Amplify, a new program designed to support AI, life science, healthtech, and agetech companies in the later stages of their commercialization journey. Slated to welcome its first cohort in late 2026, Amplify will provide targeted funding, investment support, and commercialization expertise to help companies overcome adoption barriers and achieve sustainable growth. At the same time, CABHI is launching a comprehensive Canadian agetech IP database to promote the discovery and exploitation of homegrown IP. As an established hub for trusted agetech information, resources, and market intelligence, this new database will strengthen CABHI’s—and Canada’s—position as a global leader in agetech and AI-enabled innovation.

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