Support for large scale uptake of Digital Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing

Proposals should provide support to administration, external communication and coordination of the stakeholder groups and partners engaged in the development and implementation of the following three activities:

(i) Coordinated support to innovators, buyers / industry integrators, distribution networks and investors to facilitate successful introduction of innovations to the market: The work should maximise EU-wide and global market uptake of innovative digital solutions developed by EU funded projects in the area of active and healthy ageing. Under the guidance of the European Commission, this support action will develop and execute an ""Innovation to Market (I2M)"" plan of activities that will enable early cross-border engagement across the EU and internationally. The I2M plan will build on existing European initiatives and networks in this area, and ensure that project innovators leverage these networks and identified market needs together and link to organisations and access to finance facilities that work with start-ups and SMEs.

(ii) Coordinated support to the further development of a European ""Blueprint"" on Digital Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing: The work should include an updated roadmap[[See existing roadmap at http://www.aaliance.eu]] setting out the most important ICT enabling technologies (building on technology roadmaps from major EU ICT initiatives behind them) which will impact on key user scenarios in active and healthy ageing in the short, medium and long terms. The support action will enhance the European policy vision and strengthen the community of public and private stakeholders actively supporting it.

The support action will also facilitate the cooperation of key stakeholders, such as industry, financial institutions, investors, insurers, the research community and public authorities (health and care organisations) that are committed to innovate at large scale, to mobilise private investments and identify market opportunities as well as threats to Europe's digital health and care delivery and silver economy sectors.

(iii) Coordinated support to the activities of the EIP on AHA: An important component of the policy vision on digital innovation for active and healthy ageing is the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA). Through its strategic implementation plan (SIP) and subsequent Scaling-up Strategy, the EIP on AHA partners have identified a number of priority action areas. Stakeholder action groups have developed action plans for the period of 2016-2018 for implementing innovative services for the ageing population. In its third call launched in 2016, Reference Sites have also committed to undertake investments in scaling up innovation for active and healthy ageing. Since 2015 the EIP on AHA has developed a Monitoring and Assessment Framework (MAFEIP) that is designed to capture the impact of different EIP on AHA activities. Under the guidance of the European Commission and in collaboration with the EIP on AHA Governance Board, the coordination and support action will provide support for the development and execution of EIP on AHA Action Group plans 2018-2020, support Reference Sites initiatives to scale up innovation across the EU, manage the MAFEIP tool to capture the impact of the EIP on AHA activities, strengthen the external communication of the EIP on AHA vis a vis investors, industrial players, start-ups / SMEs and public authorities. The coordination and support action will use the MAFEIP tool to produce outputs illustrating the impact of the EIP on AHA activities on a regular (annual) cycle.

The coordination and support action should provide centralised administrative support, state of the art external communications and operational coordination based on a strategy to support the new I2M plan, the policy vision on digital innovation for active and healthy ageing, and the EIP on AHA.

The coordination and support action will lead to extended reach to (and continued support by) external stakeholders, including industry players, the investment community, health and care organisations, national and regional public authorities and governments. It will seek to establish the foundations for the self-sustainability of the EIP on AHA organisation (beyond 2020).

The coordination and support action will identify synergies, establish communication links and build on relevant research and innovation activities of H2020 and other European Union, national and international programmes targeting Active and Healthy Ageing. This way it may also relate to the WHO's Active and Healthy Ageing[[http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/older-persons-day/en/]] strategy by contributing to more effective and personalized health care services to the ageing population.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU up to EUR 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately with an anticipated duration until 31 December 2020. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Several activities on scaling up of digital innovation for active and healthy ageing are currently pursued by the Commission in cooperation with a large number of different stakeholder groups and partner organisations. A coordination and support action is needed to promote the effective uptake and impact of these activities and to leverage additional investments by mobilising other national and regional programmes together with private investments.

Proposals should present quantitative and qualitative indicators to capture the impact of the policy actions in the following areas:

• Increased uptake of digital solutions for Active and Healthy Ageing, including results from relevant Horizon 2020 research and innovation activities.
• Accelerated progress on favourable framework conditions to scaling-up digital innovation for active and healthy ageing across the EU.
• Increased levels of participation by external stakeholders in the development and execution of the policy activities as described above (policy vision, I2M and EIP on AHA).
• Contribution of the policy activities to i. The Quality of Life of the EU population, ii. The Sustainability of Health and Care delivery and iii. Economic growth and job-creation in the EU.
• Increased levels of investment by public authorities and private investors in digital innovation for health and active ageing that result from policy activities.
• Enhanced communication with external stakeholders and coordination of activities within the EIP on AHA and between the EIP on AHA and other new or existing policy activities.
• Enhanced synergies with other relevant CSAs and Research & Innovation projects financed by the European Commission.