ABSTRACT There is ample evidence that persons with dementia -- who represent the majority of those living in nursing homes and assisted living -- have numerous care needs. Medically, almost 90% of nursing home residents with dementia have at least three comorbidities, as do roughly 60% of those with dementia in assisted living. Psychosocially, 40% of persons with dementia have depression, and a large majority display behavioral expressions of discomfort. The list of unmet care needs for persons with dementia in long-term care is extensive, also including need for pain management, sensory limitations, activities of daily living, social engagement, support with grief and loss, and end-of-life care, to name but a few. In addition, health care use is challenging, with as many as 25% of hospitalizations being considered potentially avoidable. Countless interventions have been developed and found to be efficacious to address these needs, but few have effected actual change; reasons for lack of success are either that studies did not extended beyond efficacy/explanatory testing, or because they were developed in a manner that limited utility in real-world settings. Responsive to the excess of interventions that do not change practice, there has been a call for pragmatic trials. Pragmatic trials move useful interventions from theory to application to generalizability across settings, populations, and providers. The need for pragmatic trials has received notable attention, but no efforts have been specific to persons with dementia living in long-term care. Special considerations are important when planning trials and interventions for persons with dementia in long-term care. In response, the proposed conference will convene national leaders in research, academic scholarship, and long-term care and dementia-related associations and societies, provider organizations, and providers themselves, to address (1) research issues related to the conduct of pragmatic trials for persons with dementia in long-term care, and (2) implementation of pragmatic innovations, and will (3) disseminate the proceedings and recommendations to diverse stakeholders. It is intended that the proposed solutions will be expressly relevant to trials for persons living with dementia in long-term care, and reflect innovative recommendations not already in the literature; that the resulting recommendations will inform long-term care providers’ selection, adoption, and sustainability of pragmatic innovations for persons with dementia, and expand their related capacity; and that the resulting strategies will reflect a novel, coordinated mechanism of dissemination that will have notable impact to promote pragmatic trials to improve care and outcomes for persons with dementia in long-term care.