AAL Forum
Was steckt dahinter
The AAL Forum
The AAL Forum is a lively and social affair that brings together a broad spectrum of stakeholders from all over Europe. It will host over 700 international congress participants who will seek information from 40 exhibitors, 30 workshops and various keynote speakers about new AAL products and services. It offers an excellent opportunity to network and gives participants a great platform to exchange experiences and ideas.
The matchmaking event brings together suitable potential business partners to talk about their work and strike up real collaborations, and the interactive nature of the sessions and workshops ensures that delegates get talking with each other. The exhibition floor at the forum showcases the latest existing and developing ICT solutions, with interactive displays and poster sessions providing valuable information about what’s available on the market. For policy makers and health professionals, these solutions have the potential to transform the lives of the older adults they are responsible for. For investors, they represent huge opportunities for developing business within this emerging sector. Other activities at the forum include talks from prestigious guest speakers, a Hackathon in which developers compete to create new ideas over the course of the forum, and social events in the evening that provide the perfect occasions for talking over ideas in a more informal setting.
The AAL Programme
The Active and Assistive Living (AAL) Programme funds ICT projects that support active and healthy ageing. The overall objective of AAL is to enhance the quality of life of older adults while strengthening the industrial base in Europe through the use of ICT.
The AAL Programme is, in its essence, all about making life easier for people as they get older. The challenges of ageing affect everyone, either personally or indirectly through relatives and loved ones. As life expectancy increases across the world, the number of people requiring assistance in their lives due to old age is growing. The AAL Programme is confronting this phenomenon head on by promoting the creation of state-of-the-art technological solutions that can help people live independent and active lives for longer.
Topics covered by the programme include management of chronic conditions, social inclusion, access to the self-serve society, mobility of older adults, management of daily activities, support from informal carers (e.g. family and friends) and occupation in life. Since 2008, AAL has funded 154 trans-national innovations projects with over 1000 partners. Almost half of these project partners are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which collaborate with user organisations, large enterprises, universities and research organisations in the development of innovative solutions.
The AAL Challenge Prize
The AAL Challenge Prize is offering €50,000 to identify an innovation that uses the Internet of Things to empower older adults to achieve the quality of life they aspire to, socially and independently.
The prize will help the most innovative ideas to develop prototypes and business plans. Fifteen of the most promising applications will be chosen as finalists and will be invited to a social innovation mentoring academy in Brussels in July, where they will receive expert coaching and support to develop their ideas. Following the academy the finalists will be asked to submit a detailed plan of their idea. From these detailed plans, five applicants will be selected who will have the opportunity to attend the AAL Forum in Switzerland in September 2016, where one winner will be chosen.