EXECUTIVE SUMMARY “The EC wants to combine these two


for the ageing market by the AAL. “Sometimes you need to kick start the market,” he argues. “Products need to be visible and seen to work. This will help create the market that others can then exploit. “Secondly, we need programmes like AAL to


overcome the fragmented nature of the ageing and health markets in Europe, when individual efforts would simply be too small. We are good at building consortia out of partners across Europe and they bring the knowledge of and access to individual markets together, so that helps create the critical mass needed. “Thirdly, this type of innovation should lead


to standards or benefit from standards and standardisation is a typical European activity and it benefits from this collective action. “Of course, there is a degree of market failure


with this way of doing things, and if the market was able to deliver, then there would be no need to put public money into these efforts,” he continues. “There are many other priorities. But we believe that it will be necessary to support this as we do for a while yet.” Many delegates posed the question over


the course of the Forum about whether or not funding AAL research and the development of products in the standard European research programme way – forming a consortium of about 10 entities, writing an elaborate proposal, working on research and development for three years and then trying to hit the market – is the right way to proceed in a market where, it could be argued, a more entrepreneurial approach would deliver solutions faster and more effectively. Paul Timmers wants to see both approaches


used in Europe, acknowledging the real need in Europe for things to be made a lot easier for entrepreneurs to develop products, get them into the market and tested with real users quickly – and for support to be offered to these people to do that. He points out that there are many large companies who take both approaches, being involved in programmes like AAL on the one hand, while supporting entrepreneurial activity and investing in promising people and products on the other.


approaches, as well,” he says, highlighting the fact that the innovation space is an important component of Horizon 2020 and AAL, which offer dedicated support schemes for entrepreneurs, like venture capital support and the support for fast development, hackathon- type activity. “I believe we need to offer this mix of support


so the questions then become what is the right mix and do we need a common plan or vision that spans both approaches? “In Europe, we often work on trying to


establish a common vision or goal and a common plan for achieving that and I believe that in some areas we are very good at that – look at our automotive industries and health services – while in other areas we are not so focused together – look at shopping on the internet. “I think the European way is that, yes, we


need a common vision and we need a number of instruments to implement that vision, but at the same time, we need to look at what others do that works, copy that and apply it here, like entrepreneurship. “With AAL, we started by defining our agenda and our priorities and they really clicked, they are really important; so we now need to scale up the solutions we have developed. How much longer should people have to wait to get fall prevention, for example, when they need it now? “So, as I said at the start, yes, there is great


optimism that AAL is beginning to deliver, but now from our side, there is also impatience.”


“Products need to be visible and seen


to work. This will help create the market that others


can then exploit” WWW.AALFORUM.EU | 61


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