AAL and the European Parliament Delivering the double win L


ambert Van Nistelrooij delighted the packed conference hall on day one of the AAL Forum when the


member of the European Parliament stood up and in a rousing address at the opening session began with the words “AAL is wonderful”! They were words AAL JP wanted to hear, as support at the political level in Europe is crucial to its future success. What Van Nistelrooij was referring to


was the frustration felt by many in the fact that though Europe has invested heavily in fundamental research over the years, much of this has been “taken up too slowly” and there is a feeling that we now need to start seeing results. “We need to speed up,” he said, “and the AAL Joint Programme is a wonderful bottom-up formula that brings research and innovation to the market. It brings together the best and then delivers.” But there was also a note of caution


in the MEP’s speech. “The European Parliament sees the need for you to do even more,” he said. “Innovation brings many benefits to society, while the silver economy is there to be exploited. “So we must find more user-friendly


instruments for care and healthcare and Europe must work together on this. We have the knowledge and the will to deliver the solutions we need to meet the challenges of our ageing society, but we must see the products and then the European Parliament will offer even more support.” In an interview after the speech, Van


Nistelrooij was in reflective mood about how we should actually speed up this process and the most efficient way to get products to market – and one word was key to him, cooperation. “As a means for getting start-ups off


the ground, cooperation is the key,” he said. “Don’t think that you can do it alone, because developments are going so quickly, so look for partners and get in line – this is the way of speeding up in Europe.” While he is clear on the need to speed


the innovation process, van Nistelrooij still believes the pace of this change


www.aalforum.eu


Lambert Van Nistelrooij is a supporter of the AAL JP


needs to be faster. “I sometimes have a little doubt that we are speeding up fast enough,” he said, using the example of lack of take-up by the end user in the Netherlands as a good example of this. “What we saw there,” he explained, “was that even though we had fibre broadband to every home, we did not deliver services as people didn’t want them. You have to rely on take-up by the user and that is not so easy. “And it is not a question of creating


some big design here,” he continued. “No, it’s a question of looking at how a system works, in housing or hospitals, for example, and then looking at the impact your product can have and then making them payable. “But this is different in every country


as every country delivers and pays for services in different ways, so your solutions have to be tailor-made to create the maximum impact. AAL is a good example of how these tailor- made ideas can also be coordinated through cooperation. Here we have products from many different countries and it is this cooperation that brings wider impact in the longer run. “The key for me, however, is that we


must make the innovation pay, both in terms of cost savings by offering services online, but also in terms of offering services that people want to buy.” And that for Van Nistelrooij is a key


AAL is a wonderful bottom-up formula that brings research and innovation to the market. It brings together the best and then delivers


measure of success for the AAL JP – the most important thing to deliver is the services, he believes. “We need to create the services that


people can and want to use, to make them feel safe in their own home and to make a difference to their lives, this is the first thing,” he said. “The second thing that comes from this, the double win, is that in creating these services, we deliver jobs – this is true. “But it is always hard to find a balance


between cost and benefits, so it’s not only about the economic benefits and the jobs, it’s also about delivering better services.”


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