A $1.57 million grant split evenly with Cornell University will fund a five-year collaborative project studying how older people age in a variety of residential environments. The study's primary focus will be to determine what conditions lead to successful, or unsuccessful, aging. The project has its roots in discussions two years ago between Gerontology Institute director John Krout and Phyllis Moen, director of the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center at Cornell. Krout and Moen will serve as coprincipal investigators on the study. "This has been a collaborative project from the beginning," says Krout. "We look forward to it continuing."

Krout estimates that the research, which will include heavy participation from faculty and students at each institution, will study some 800 people at the outset. He said sample attrition could bump that number into the thousands by the time the study-believed to be the first of its kind-is complete. "This is just a phenomenal study to be able to do," he says.

Another grant to the institute, worth $185,000 over three years, will support curriculum development with Ithacare's new residential facility, provide for community education and outreach through conferences and a health and wellness project, and support the incorporation of aging issues into several subjects in the existing middle school and high school curriculums of the Ithaca City School District. These projects, too, will mean heavy participation by Ithaca College faculty and students.

"The whole essence of gerontology is the application of knowledge," says Krout. "It's exciting to have the resources to do that."