Although EU countries share this demographic challenge, there is currently a lack of cross-border exchange of experiences and good innovative examples. ACE – Accelerating the Home Care Innovation Ecosystem of the Future in the North Sea Region – addresses this issue and the project will test both new and existing solutions in practice.
The ACE project is funded by the EU program Interreg North Sea and is conducted in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. In Sweden, RISE, Innovation Skåne and Höganäs Municipality are participating in the project; in Skåne, Lund Municipality has also signed a stakeholder agreement to follow and support the project. ACE works both to promote innovation and to work across borders where we jointly seek solutions that create security and promote independence for people who have care at home.
In 2021, 21.8 per cent of the population was 65+ in the EU. In the North Sea region, this change is even more pronounced. This is a trend that is expected to continue in the coming decades. And with increasing age, the prevalence of chronic diseases increases. There is already a shortage of staff in elderly care, while the demand for home care is increasing.
– The needs we see in elderly care need to be linked to the solutions of the future. We need to work together with several countries’ elderly care services, where cooperation in the long term provides greater competition and better solutions with greater dissemination,” says Fred Kjellsson, innovation manager at Innovation Skåne.
In Sweden, existing and new solutions will be tested and demonstrated in a real environment in Höganäs. The project works in five dimensions: technology, business models, culture, policy and infrastructure.
PROJECT IN BRIEF
Name: ACE – Accelerating the Home Care Innovation Ecosystem of the Future in the North Sea Region
Time period: 01/01/2023 – 30/06/2026
Overall objective of the project: The main objective is to accelerate innovations in the home care ecosystem in the North Sea Region, by:
- Developing and enhancing research and innovation capacities and the uptake of advanced technologies
- Developing skills for smart specialization, industrial transition, and entrepreneurship.
Funder: EU program Interreg North Sea and RISE
Coordinating project partner: RISE
Project partners:
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
Innovation Skåne
Höganäs Omsorg (Höganäs Municipality)
BOM Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij 5 Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij Oost Nederland NV
Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen
Aarhus Municipality
Vesthimmerlands Kommune
ESN European Social Network
Thomas More University – Living & Care Lab
Boone NV – PRoF
Biotech Sante Bretagne
CoWork’Hit Innovation Center
TUHH Hamburg University of Technology
