Center for Seniors Uniting Nationwide to Support Health, INtegrated care, and Economics (SUNSHINE)

The Center for SUNSHINE (Seniors Uniting Nationwide to Support Health, INtegrated care, and Economics) focuses on resilience, defined as the integrated capacity of individuals, families, healthcare systems, and communities to adapt to and support aging populations with complex health needs. SUNSHINE’s overarching mission is to advance aging resilience by integrating healthcare systems, public health organizations, social service agencies, and community-based resources to enhance the well-being of older adults and their care partners, and maximize societal value. SUNSHINE focuses on four key research areas: (1) healthcare systems, social services, and public health support; (2) social and behavioral factors of health across the life course; (3) cognitive and behavioral health; and (4) population-level interventions and resilience. These focus areas are supported by SUNSHINE’s three transformative aims: (1) facilitating interdisciplinary research to advance resilient aging, (2) training the next generation of resilience-focused researchers, and (3) translating research findings into real-world impact. SUNSHINE builds on a strong foundation, including the 50-year legacy of the University of Maryland Center on Aging and the advanced computational and learning health system infrastructures of the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing. The interdisciplinary team unites expertise from ten units at the University of Maryland at College Park, including the newly established Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute, and six units at the University of Maryland at Baltimore. SUNSHINE establishes a shared platform that bridges disciplines such as economics, demography, medicine, population health, AI/ML, epidemiology, and health informatics. A key strength of SUNSHINE lies in its proven success in collaborating with Historically Black Colleges and Universities to build research capacity. To effectively bridge research and policy, SUNSHINE leverages longstanding relationships and engages policymakers and community leaders through the Legacy Leadership Institute on Public Policy and AARP, ensuring its findings promote resilience for all aging populations. SUNSHINE is deeply committed to cultivating the next generation of researchers to advance resilience in aging and maximize societal value. SUNSHINE administers a pilot grant program that supports scholars in conducting high-impact resilience-focused aging research and supports scholars through tailored mentoring, multidisciplinary networking, and robust training programs. SUNSHINE is positioned to drive transformative research in resilience-focused aging, train the next generation of scholars, and bridge the gap between research and policy. These efforts will deliver innovative solutions that improve health and well-being for aging populations, addressing critical challenges at individual, community, and systemic levels.