SHAPES project launched: harnessing digital services to support the well-being of ageing individuals
Laurea is involved in a Horizon 2020 project that seeks to develop a digital service ecosystem to help ageing people continue to live in their homes.
SHAPES (Smart and Healthy Ageing through People Engaging in Supportive Systems), a project funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme, was launched on 1 November 2019. The goal is to develop a novel digital service ecosystem to support the well-being of ageing people living at home.
The project strives to find answers to challenges related to the ageing population.
- While the demand for services for the elderly continues to increase, the services must be provided with a decreasing workforce and tax revenue, explains Sari Sarlio-Siintola, Project Manager for the SHAPES project at Laurea University of Applied Sciences.
- SHAPES builds on digital transformation and ecosystem thinking, which enable new kinds of operating models to help ageing people live in their homes. This also offers new business opportunities for technology suppliers and service companies.
Ethical competence is one of Laurea’s areas of responsibility
The rights of ageing individuals and their ability to live a good life at home or in a home-like environment are at the heart of the services designed in the SHAPES project. Ethics and ethical competence play a key role in the project, from planning to implementation and assessment. Ethical competence is one of Laurea’s areas of responsibility
- In addition to ethical and legal competence, Laurea contributes to the project with service design, co-creation, ecosystem modelling and substantive competence in the well-being of the ageing population, says Project Manager Sarlio-Siintola.
The project includes a total of 36 partners from 14 countries. It will run for four years, and the overall expenses will exceed 20 million euros. Laurea’s budget of nearly 900,000 euros is the second largest in the project, closely tailing that of the project coordinator, Maynooth University in Ireland.
During the project, digital services will be piloted in seven areas in Europe.
The goal is to set up a system of cost-effective, interoperable and reliable innovations, which can efficiently support older people’s lives in and outside the home.
The SHAPES project consortium will meet for the first time at the kick-off event in Maynooth, Ireland, on 11–13 November 2019. Follow SHAPES project in Twitter: @H2020Shapes
