Executive Summary


AAL JP keeps policy makers well equipped and educated with all the latest developments in this arena so they can best deploy the right innovation that meets particular identified needs. The Forum this year took place in the town of Lecce, in the


Puglia Region of Italy. Here, regional and local politicians as well as other key Italian stakeholders contributed to the plenary sessions and several debates. As an example, Elena Gentile, Regional Minister of Welfare and Social Policies, Puglia Region, highlighted amongst others, her strong support for the AAL JP programme and AAL work on the Regional level, where its vision and strategy are so important for the new concepts of welfare and social policy and for social innovations. These, she concluded, should not be seen only as problems but as an opportunity, which, if well managed, will support industry and create new jobs for young people. In further debates and discussions about regional AAL


affairs it appeared that on the regional level there is more convergent agreement on how AAL should be impacting on the public sector. We need more sophisticated policies towards ageing at a regional level. We are all facing the same problems, the same issues, but there are different systems in place to meet them, so regional policy paths of research and innovation, social welfare and healthcare need a coordinated approach with a common vision and shared objectives across the regions that promote both public and private actions. We are dealing with many stakeholders – carers, health authorities, industry, policy makers and, not least, the citizen – so the approach needs to be coordinated to involve them all on many levels. There is a clear opportunity here for the AAL JP to create regional clusters and provide platforms for the exchange of experiences and ideas. We need to understand the technological state of the art developed at a regional level and we should analyse the weakest and strongest links to help make policies more efficient. By forming regional innovation partnerships, we can test ideas in living labs and gain a better understanding of pre-commercial procurement. And it is with this idea that it would be


wise to focus a little more clearly on what many at the Forum referred to as the “end user”. Just who is this person? Is it the old person who needs care, the person who is ill who needs treatment and monitoring? Or is it all of us in society? And when, as users, should we start using the technology being devised for active and healthy aging? It quickly became clear amongst many speakers and


delegates at the Forum that when we talk about the quality of life we need to think in terms of the whole of life. What our current sophisticated health systems do is prolong life at the time when the quality of life is very low, so what we need to be doing is improving the quality of life before disease to prevent the onset of disease in the first place. We should move from an episodic and reactive focus on disease to a focus on proactive prevention. And this means putting in place the social innovations that


impact across all age groups and to do this we must look into the future and all try to understand how we would like that future to be for us. There was clear support for AAL’s encouragement of young researchers in this regard. So the message is clear; challenge the way we do things now, let new ideas in and embrace the change at every level. Of course there are many barriers standing between ideas


for change, products and services that usher that change in and actually bringing solutions to market and making that change happen. These were clearly identified by many


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speakers at the Forum, but more encouragingly, solutions were offered, too. Perhaps the most often mentioned obstacle was that of


access to money, both to fund the development of innovative products and, not least, to take them to market. While the Forum was not the place for firm financial commitment there was a call to arms for all current 23 AAL member countries to maintain their financial commitment to the programme and for continued support from the EC for future funding commitment. Supporting this was the clear message that through innovation comes growth – jobs are created, businesses can emerge and flourish, and all while addressing the real need we have in society. But there was also a note of caution that we should not


expect too much, too soon. The programme is only four years old and the products and services being developed are only just starting to emerge. It is time to start looking at how they can create the impact they have been devised to create, but it will take some time for the actual volume of jobs to be created, markets to be developed, and businesses to emerge. However, with the funding the AAL JP has ploughed into development, jobs have already been created; it is now time to make sure these are sustainable. Another key obstacle identified at the Forum was the


need for AAL to attract the right players and encourage participation from new stakeholders in the development of solutions for active and healthy ageing. Many thought this was difficult and new and innovative communications tools


Social innovation is about people, and society and about creating new value that benefits the whole of society and not just the elderly. It is about connectedness and using our need for social relationships to keep us well and happy


aimed specifically at new players should be developed. One call came for 20 per cent of funding to be set aside for new players in the market. With such a diverse set of issues being addressed by the AAL JP, a multi-disciplinary approach to innovation is seen as vital. AAL JP addresses the gap between supply and demand on


the innovation path that currently exists. Throughout the EC’s distributed funding programmes, attention has been focused more on research and supply rather than on the demand side. This gap between supply and demand and the barriers that exist along the gap, will be addressed, as the Forum heard, with the help of a formidable new ally in the form of the “European Innovation Partnership” (EIP) on the pilot “Active and Healthy Ageing” (AHA). The EIP is a new structure, initiated by the European


Commission, formed to bring all needed stakeholders together to identify barriers to innovation and bring them down by looking at bottom-up commercialisation using existing European programmes – like AAL. It is neither a funding instrument nor a research programme but instead a new structure designed to build a framework for innovation, bringing stakeholders together, and turn good, innovative ideas into good business, as highlighted by Constantijn van Orange-Nassau, Cabinet of Vice President Neelie Kroes, European Commission.


AAL Forum 2011


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