The Isère General Council and IRT Nanoelec are joining forces to drive advances in the district’s Silver Economy. The Activage project, which was selected by the European Commission, will build Europe’s first-ever fully-integrated ecosystem for the rollout of smart living spaces to improve quality of life for the elderly.
The purpose of this large-scale project is to experiment with digital technology as a means of helping the elderly live safely and independently in their homes for as long as possible. The project will run for four years. The total budget of €20 million will finance testing at nine sits in seven countries across Europe.
Here in Grenoble, Leti and STMicroelectronics, both founding partners of the IRT Nanoelec PULSE program, put together a consortium of Silver Economy stakeholders to respond to the EU Horizon 2020 “IoT- 01-2016: Large Scale Pilots” call for proposals for 2014–2020. The goal is to get IoT solutions to the market faster by conducting large-scale tests of connected solutions in real-world conditions. The “Large Scale Pilots” projects target five markets that respond to major societal challenges:
- Smart living environments for aging well
- Smart farming
- Wearables
- Smart cities
- Autonomous vehicles
IRT Nanoelec partners decided to submit a proposal for the first project, “Smart living environments for aging well,” as the project would build on work already completed under IRT Nanoelec’s Silver Lab project and other Silver Economy projects run by IRT Nanoelec partners. In April 2016 the consortium submitted a proposal for the Activage project that stood out for its quality and scientific excellence and was the only proposal in its category selected by the European Commission. The project was granted funding of €20 million over 42 months.
The Activage project will:
– Assess the capacity of digital technology to help the elderly live more independently in their living environments
– Leverage user-centered design methods to develop the target digital solutions
– Assess the acceptability of the digital solutions developed and measure their impact on in-home healthcare for the elderly
– Investigate business models that would create jobs and support public policies governing the care of elderly patients requiring in-home assistance
The objectives are:
– Help the elderly live at home longer and more safely
– Keep the elderly’s level of independence from diminishing and maintain their physical strength and other capabilities
– Help elderly patients readapt to living at home after a hospitalization
– Create services that are efficient and that can be personalized
The project consortium includes ten France-based partners working together to innovate tomorrow’s “smart living environments for aging well.”
Learn more (in French): https://www.isere.fr/Documents/Social/personnes%20handicap%C3%A9es/Activage03Jan17.pdf