Living Lab de salut i benestar
Year : 2018-2021
Location : Vilanova i la Geltrú
Subject : living lab, health and well-being, active aging.
The project focuses on developing an ecosystem of work between the different local and regional actors of innovation (quadruple helix) to find solutions to the needs of the new elderly, in order to create a competitive industry based on knowledge, research , innovation and active experimentation in new economic niches based on this sector. This ecosystem materializes in the form of a territorial Living Lab specialized in health and wellness issues, and focused mainly on seniors, a sector of activity that will have more and more weight in the economy as a whole.
The living lab: a space to collaborate to find innovative solutions
The Living Lab of Health and Wellness is based in Neàpolis. The aim is to generate a space for the confluence of the agents involved: the academic community, public and private companies, citizens and associations and the public administration so that they can work together. These agents will include the university and research centers, health centers and care for people, companies and entrepreneurs in the sector, as well as students. It will also include the elderly themselves and their family environments as well as other specific agents specific to the profile of creative laboratories such as the local Maker community or voluntary organizations that work cooperatively with these segments of the population.
It is a question of all of them, sharing this ecosystem of work and experimentation, bringing to light and proposing new initiatives and projects. One of the specific groups that will also need to be paid attention to will be people with disabilities.
Some of the projects that are expected to be worked on have to do with aspects such as the dignification of housing for the elderly with the help of sensors to improve aspects such as energy efficiency, monitoring of people from their homes, the implementation of intelligent home automation solutions that improve the quality of life of the elderly or the use of tools such as 3D printing, the creation of immersive experiences with virtual or augmented reality, etc. In this sense, a range is also opened with the collection and analysis of the data generated by all these services. The information gathered and its treatment can help to design or find new ways to address care for the elderly.
A project for territorial specialization and competitiveness
The project is part of the Garraf Territorial Specialization and Competitiveness Project (PECT), on active and healthy aging and dependency, coordinated by the Garraf County Council , and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund FEDER Catalonia 2014-2020. This program supports projects and actions of economic transformation on the territory that have innovation as one of its primary features.
In addition to the Silver Living Lab in Neàpolis, the PECT Garraf deploys a series of projects through various organizations: theInstitute of Robotics for Addiction ; the Ave Maria Foundation of Sitges ; thePolytechnic School of Engineering of Vilanova i la Geltrú EPSEVG – UPC and the Alt Penedès-Garraf Health Consortium . Each of them has developed projects and initiatives around the elderly. Some of these initiatives include the search for applied solutions from robotics to dependency care, loneliness care, geriatric care and healthy aging, among others. It is about bringing together the set of activities led by these agents in the territory so that, coordinated, they allow to establish joint strategies. As a result of this planning, actions must be taken to respond to the new needs of the elderly.
Neàpolis will receive a grant of more than € 117,000 for this project, from an estimated budget of more than € 234,000. Altogether, the project will involve a grant of more than € 759,000. This amount corresponds to 50% of the total budget which is just over 1.5 million euros.
