May 12, 2025—The a2 Collective is pleased to announce the funding of 27 new pilots using advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies to enhance care, health outcomes, and quality of life for older adults, including individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD), and their caregivers.
These projects comprise the fourth annual cohort funded through the a2 Pilot Awards, a national competition that is on track to distribute more than $40 million over 5 years to projects developing novel technologies and algorithms for application in the areas of healthy aging and AD/ADRD.
Funded by the National Institute on Aging, a part of the National Institutes of Health, through the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratories (AITC) for Aging Research program—or a2 Collective—the awards support pilot projects selected by AITCs centered at Johns Hopkins University (JH AITC), the University of Massachusetts Amherst (MassAITC), and the University of Pennsylvania (PennAITech). In addition to awards of up to $200,000 in direct costs provided over a 1-year period, projects also benefit from resources and multidisciplinary mentorship from the funding AITC.
The 27 projects funded in Cohort 4 extend the a2 Collective’s investment in user-centered applications of emerging AI and technology to improve older adults’ care in clinical and residential settings alike and enable them to continue living at home—or “age in place”—with greater independence, safety, and well-being. Key contributions these projects target include enhancing AI-driven systems that facilitate remote monitoring of older adults’ health; leveraging electronic health records to improve physician–patient communication and augment the detection of cognitive decline; refining algorithms to more accurately predict risk and provide tailored care; and developing AI-enabled tools to help support and educate patient–caregiver dyads.
The fourth pilot cohort represents 11 different U.S. states and territories, including first-time awardee locations of Oklahoma and Ohio. The funded projects are led by academic, industry, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations, with approximately one third of the projects led solely or collaboratively by startups or small businesses. Similar to previous cohorts, most pilots in this class focus on either developing and testing initial prototypes (44%) or evaluating technologies in real-world conditions (26%), with smaller contingents of projects engaging in technology concept or discovery work (19%) and commercial deployment or scaling (11%).
Across the fourth cohort of a2 Pilot Awards projects, 48% include a focus on developing or improving user-facing software and platforms. Additional technology approaches leveraged by pilots in this class include virtual assistants and chatbots (15%), environmental sensors (15%), wearables (11%), and smartphone hardware enhancements (11%). Beyond solutions delivered through these modes, some Cohort 4 pilots are primarily focused on building analytic tools that can help interpret medical imaging, improve physician-patient communication, and enhance diagnostic precision.
The most prevalent areas of need addressed by Cohort 4 pilots are cognition (52%); decision support and education for older adults, caregivers, and physicians (44%); and chronic age-related conditions and comorbidities (44%). Notably, the proportion of pilots that include a substantive focus on chronic conditions and comorbidities more than doubled from Cohort 3 (21%). Across clinical and behavioral domains, the proportion of pilots focused on basic science research in Cohort 4 (48%) increased considerably compared to previous cohorts (16% on average), a change consistent with the fourth competition’s introduction of a special focus area on the biology of aging. Several projects in this cohort are using computational biology and genetic sequencing approaches to gain insight into the dynamics of aging processes and AD/ADRD progression.
“Applying AI-driven computational methods to multiscale biological data offers an unparalleled opportunity to accelerate scientific understanding of complex cellular and molecular processes that shape aging and disease trajectories,” said Albert Lee, PhD, co-director of the a2 Collective Coordinating Center. “We’re excited that the latest a2 Pilot Awards cohort includes projects using cutting-edge approaches to study biological mechanisms of aging and AD/ADRD, with the potential to yield novel biomarkers and paths to intervention.”
Continuing a growth trend observed in Cohort 3, the vast majority of Cohort 4 pilots incorporate machine learning (96%) across various users and settings. Substantial portions leverage natural language processing (37%) and computer vision (30%). By user, the pilots are focused on supporting healthcare professionals, systems, and payers (56%), older adults with impaired cognitive function (44%) and without impaired cognitive function (44%), and caregivers and social support network members (33%). By setting, this class continues the trend of planned AI and technology implementation in both homes or independent living communities (63%) and hospital settings (59%).
These trends demonstrate how the a2 Pilot Awards competition accelerates cutting-edge AI and technology throughout a care continuum that comprises varied stakeholders and spans hospital, clinic, and home settings. Importantly, innovations across these settings can interact synergistically to compound potential benefits—for example, technologies developed for clinicians and specialists can subsequently migrate to the consumer market to better support older adults as they age in place, while at-home monitoring technologies can provide crucial data to inform clinical decision-making.1
“As the a2 Collective ecosystem of innovation expands with each successive awardee cohort, we’re inspired by the novel technology solutions and multidisciplinary collaborations driving these projects,” said Rose Li, PhD, MBA, co-director of the a2 Collective Coordinating Center. “We look forward to the near- and long-term contributions this latest cohort of pilot projects stands to make toward advancing the development of technologies that can enhance the health and quality of life of older Americans.”
The fifth a2 Pilot Awards competition is underway with finalists to be selected in spring 2025. Visit our Awardees page for more information about the a2 Collective’s funded pilots. Both Cohort 4 and Cohort 5 pilots will be highlighted at the fourth annual a2 National Symposium, which will be hosted by the a2 Collective Coordinating Center in Washington, D.C., on March 19–20, 2026.
NIA is one of 27 Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The a2 Collective is funded through NIA grants U24AG073094 (a2 Collective Coordinating Center), P30AG073104 (JH AITC), P30AG073105 (PennAITech), and P30AG073107 (MassAITC).
1 For more information about a2 Pilot Awards–funded advances in remote health monitoring for older adults, see AI and Technology Collaboratories (AITC) for Aging Research Program Advances in Brief Issue 1, “Remote Vitals Monitoring Enables Safer, More Independent Aging in Place.”
a2 Pilot Awards Cohort 4 Projects
Click the descriptive titles below for additional project details or visit our Awardees page to view all three cohorts of projects funded by the a2 Pilot Awards to date.
Awardee organization(s): Amplifier Health Inc.
PI(s): Amit Mehta, MD | Camille Noufi, PhD
Awardee organization(s): Boston University
PI(s): Rhoda Au, PhD, MBA
Using generative AI to enhance differential diagnosis and assessment of mixed dementias
Awardee organization(s): Boston University
PI(s): Vijaya B. Kolachalama, PhD
Awardee organization(s): BrainCheck Inc.
PI(s): Bin Huang, PhD | Katherine Britt, PhD, RN
Awardee organization(s): Case Western Reserve University
PI(s): Philip A. Cola, PhD | Peter John Whitehouse, MD, PhD
Awardee organization(s): Craniometrix
PI(s): Nikhil Patel | Halima Amjad, MD, MPH, PhD | Cynthia Fields, MD
Awardee organization(s): Health Tequity LLC
PI(s): Katherine Kim, PhD, MBA, MPH
Awardee organization(s): Johns Hopkins University
PI(s): Jerry Prince, PhD
Using Gaussian process modeling to identify frailty subtypes and personalize care for older adults
Awardee organization(s): Johns Hopkins University
PI(s): Rebecca Keener, PhD
Awardee organization(s): Johns Hopkins University | UCSD
PI(s): Renjie Zhao, PhD | Xinyu Zhang, PhD
Awardee organization: Kennesaw State University
PI(s): Nazmus Sakib, PhD
Using explainable AI and deep learning for brain age prediction in older adults in clinical settings
Awardee organization(s): KurtLab | University of Washington
PI(s): Mehmet Kurt, PhD
Awardee organization(s): Massachusetts General Hospital
PI(s): Vineet Raghu, PhD
AI-driven speech and motion analysis using machine learning to detect early AD signs in older adults
Awardee organization(s): MGH Institute of Health Professions
PI(s): Marziye Eshghi, PhD
Awardee organization(s): Operant BioPharma
PI(s): Jeremy Linsley, PhD
Using quantum electrochemical spectroscopy to predict cognitive decline and AD progression
Awardee organization(s): Probius Inc.
PI(s): Chaitanya Gupta, PhD | Steven E. Arnold, MD
Awardee organization(s): S-3 Research LLC
PI(s): Timothy Mackey, PhD
Awardee organization(s): UCLA
PI(s): Jason Ernst, PhD
Awardee organization(s): UCLA
PI(s): Catherine Sarkisian, MD, MSHS
Awardee organization(s): UCSD | UCLA
PI(s): Raeanne Moore, PhD | Yeonsu Song, PhD
Awardee organization(s): University of Pennsylvania
PI(s): Rory Boyle, PhD
Awardee organization(s): University of Pennsylvania
PI(s): Nancy Hodgson, PhD, RN
Awardee organization(s): University of Pennsylvania
PI(s): Kyra O'Brien, MD, MSHP
Monitoring vital signs for older adults using an AI-powered biomagnetism wearable
Awardee organization(s): University of Pittsburgh
PI(s): Longfei Shangguan, PhD
Awardee organization(s): University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
PI(s): Min Ji Kwak, MD, MS, DrPH | Sunyang Fu, PhD, MHI
Awardee organization(s): University of Virginia
PI(s): Meghan K. Mattos, PhD, RN, CNL | Serkan Sandikcioglu, MEM
Awardee organization(s): Weill Cornell Medicine
PI(s): Nili Solomonov, PhD | Logan Grosenick, PhD
