Ontario Tech says $1M gift will fund healthy-aging research centre in Oshawa
Ontario Tech University in Oshawa received a $1 million gift from the Sienna for Seniors Foundation to create the Sienna Senior Living Research Centre for Healthy Aging and Happiness. Ontario Tech announced the donation April 10, 2026.
According to the university, the new centre is intended to support research and training related to older adults’ well-being and to the people who care for them, including caregivers, health-care professionals and senior-living staff.
Ontario Tech said the centre will focus on three areas: research on older adults’ well-being, happiness and quality of life in different living settings; training and education for caregivers, health-care professionals and senior-living team members; and developing tools, policies and measurement frameworks intended to inform senior care.
The university said experts in aging and health sciences will oversee the centre’s research. Ontario Tech identified Dr. Winnie Sun as the centre’s Scientific Director of Wellness and Innovations in NeuroAging, and Dr. Shilpa Dogra as its Scientific Director of Active InnovAging.
Sun is an Ontario Tech Research Excellence Chair in Healthy Aging and Dementia Care and an associate professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences. The university said her work will focus on dementia care, aging in place and technology-enabled supports.
Dogra is research director of Ontario Tech’s Active Living and Longevity Lab and a professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Ontario Tech said she will advance research on active aging, including fall prevention, sedentary behaviour and community-based programming.
Ontario Tech said the centre’s work will draw on research participants who live and work in “diverse settings,” and that the research will involve participants’ lived experiences.
Nitin Jain, president and CEO of Sienna Senior Living, said the organization has observed a connection between health and happiness in senior living and wants to study that relationship.
The foundation previously contributed $100,000 to support scholarships for Ontario Tech Nursing students, according to the university.