Support for the large scale uptake of open service platforms in the Active and Healthy Ageing domain

Proposals should deliver an inventory of the state of the art and analyse the use of open service platforms in the Active and Healthy Ageing domain, covering both open platforms -such as universAAL[[http://www.universaal.info/]] and FIWARE[[https://www.fiware.org/]]- and partly-open/proprietary platforms developed by industry. In addition, proposals should address interactions between platforms.

Proposals should elaborate a methodology that monitors open platform development, adoption and spread across Europe, with relevant KPI’s, factors that support or hinder the uptake of open platforms in Europe, including the associated evolution of the ecosystems and stakeholder networks.

Proposals are then expected to put this methodology into practice and study the use of open platforms by, amongst other possible actions, collecting and processing data from running and recently ended projects –including EU funded projects- and initiatives that use the referred platforms, with special focus on those building upon UniversAAL and FIWARE. They should also address the evolution in the further development and maintenance of the platforms as well as the use and sustainability of relevant open platforms.

Proposals should elaborate evaluation guidelines aimed at collecting evidence on socio economic costs and benefits of the use of open platforms as means for service delivery to serve as a reference for promoting further use of this approach.

Proposals are expected to include activities aimed at fostering integration efforts and knowledge exchange between the projects and initiatives referred above and also the user communities around the platforms. Proposals should collect best practices and practical experience with integrating multiple platforms. Technical, organisational, financial/business and legal aspects should be taken into account. Proposals should explore and link relevant on-going policy initiatives in the field such as the Blueprint for digital transformation of health and care[[http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/document.cfm?doc_id=40787]].

Proposals should describe collaboration activities with other relevant European projects or initiatives, e.g. the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing. They are also expected to include dissemination activities for different stakeholder groups -technology developers, policy makers, end users-, preferably in the context of major events such as EIP-AHA summit, AAL Forum and eHealth Week.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 1.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

In the past years several open service platforms for Active and Healthy Ageing domains have been developed, originating from the medical, independent living, and IoT domain. These platforms aim at building a common basis for application development, assuring interoperability at the application and service level, and reducing development cost by re-use of components. As these platforms mature more insight is needed in the way they contribute to the development of a scalable and open market for digital solutions for health and ageing, and which value is actually achieved through them. The integration of platforms between different domains will introduce new interoperability issues that need to be tackled. A coordination and support action that addresses these issues and gathers the insight referred above is needed in order to promote the effective uptake and impact of open platforms.

Proposal should present appropriate indicators to measure their progress and impact in these areas:

• Identification of the critical success factors of open platform development, deployment, and spread;
• Increased knowledge on the differences and synergies between open platforms, with regard to both their features and their interoperability on different levels (data / information / applications / services);
• Evidence for the socioeconomic benefit of open service platforms;
• Engagement of required stakeholders to ensure the reliability of the data collected and to maximize the value of results achieved;
• Increased levels of participation by service platform providers and platform users in networking and knowledge exchange events;
• Contribution to the effective implementation of relevant policy initiatives in the field;
• Enhanced synergies with other European projects to make joint progress on favourable framework conditions to scaling-up digital innovation for active and healthy ageing across the EU, including standardisation.