European project allows to mitigate the social distancing of the older population
At a time when society lives in a state of emergency, digital platforms play a key role in supporting citizens, particularly the older ones. Population ageing is a reality observed in all countries of the European Union – in 2018, 19% of this population was aged 65 or more[1]. Due to social distance during the pandemic, it is essential to address the needs of older people and, knowing that age is a risk factor in Covid-19 pandemic, it is necessary to create/adapt appropriate responses.
In this regard, Cáritas Coimbra is participating in the European project PlatformUptake.eu – a Coordination and Support Action to the European Commission for digital platforms to support Active and Healthy Ageing, which proposes to find a large-scale solution to promote inclusive communities.
To respond to the demographic changes caused by the ageing of the population, with the necessary structure and resources, the European Union has made several ICT projects viable, creating a considerable number of “open source” platforms for the development of innovative solutions in the field of active and healthy ageing. These platforms are within the same domain, competing or complementing each other, which makes it necessary to have greater interoperability between them.
In this context, PlatformUptake.eu is analysing and describing the ecosystem of these platforms, promoting synergies between the respective networks and related projects in the AHA (Active and Healthy Ageing) and IoT (Internet of Things) domains. Through the creation of an online information hub, it aims to assess the societal impact of the existing platforms, to create monitoring and evaluation tools, to collect successful user stories and best practices, to promote interoperability and to define common guidelines for the large-scale uptake of these platforms.
The project was approved under the European Union’s H2020 programme and is being developed in partnership by 12 highly experienced entities from ten European countries, namely: Cáritas Coimbra (Portugal), Technical University of Madrid (Spain), University of the Balearic Islands (Spain), Italian National Research Council (Italy), Fraunhofer (Germany), Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (Greece), Jožef Stefan Institute (Slovenia), AFEdemy (Netherlands), Stichting Smart Homes (Netherlands), Linköping University (Sweden), Etablissements A. Lievens Lanckman (Belgium) and SYNYO GmbH (Austria), who is the project coordinator.
For more information, see the PlatformUptake.eu website – HERE. You can also keep up to date on the project and find out more about digital platforms to support Active and Healthy Ageing by subscribing to the newsletter – HERE.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Population_structure_and_ageing/pt