Research Areas

NIMLAS strives to support innovative methodological research designed to improve longitudinal studies of aging in each of the five major thematic areas above. Within each of these areas, there are specific critical topics that have been identified by network members as needing more research in the future. The diagram below provides a summary of these critical topics, illustrating that many topics in fact cover multiple major thematic areas. While NIMLAS is interested in supporting innovative research on all of these topics, research topics that cover multiple thematic areas will always be considered high-priority. No individual topics should be considered higher-priority than others. In addition, NIMLAS will generally prioritize research that emphasizes novel methodologies. We do not have a separate thematic area for new methodologies (e.g. generative AI) given that novel techniques tend to cut across all of the critical topics within each of the five thematic areas.

Please visit the specific landing pages for each thematic area to see more detailed definitions for each of these topics. All NIMLAS-supported research products, workshop information, and bibliography entries will be classified based on these topics.