Introduction

The Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) "More Years, Better Lives – The Potential and Challengesof Demographic Change" seeks to enhance coordination and collaboration between European andnational research programmes related to demographic change. Areas affected by demographicchange cover a wide range of research fields and policy topics ranging from health to socialwelfare, education & learning, work & productivity to housing, urban & rural development andmobility. The JPI "More Years, Better Lives" therefore follows a transnational, multi-disciplinaryapproach bringing together different research programmes and researchers from various disciplinesin order to provide solutions for the upcoming challenges and make use of the potential of societalchange in Europe. The overarching aim of the JPI is to find ways to improve the health andwellbeing of older people, to enable less-active elderly to be more engaged in social life and moreactive contributors to wider society, and to do this in cost-effective ways. Currently 15 Europeancountries plus Canada and Israel participate in the JPI.

Objective of the call

The call is concerned with the ways in which the health and wellbeing of older people, at all stagesof later life, is supported and promoted through the design of the social and physical environment,access to opportunities to learn, and the use of technologies of all kinds. The call funds innovative,transnational and interdisciplinary collaborative projects that investigate the potential of technology,place and learning in relation with the older.

Content of the call

The call involves three fields of action:

a) Technology, especially digital technologies: to understand how existing and emergingtechnologies can improve the quality of life, contribution and social engagement of olderpeople;

b) Places: how individuals experience the places where they live, work and engage with others,and how learning and technology enhance or diminish their quality of life;

c) Learning in all its forms, critical to people’s ability to make the best use of the opportunitiesavailable to them, as to avoid cognitive decline.Each application shall address the topic of Technology and may also address topics of Place andLearning, in relation with Technology.

Proposals should indicate how applicants plan to increaseunderstanding of the actions to be taken to improve the health and wellbeing of older people.Examples of the kind of issues which can be explored might include:

a) The way older people perceive the relationships between their lives, environments, learning andtechnologies, including the role of paid and unpaid work, can be used when implementing newsolutions and new infrastructure in elderly care;

b) The implications of demographic change for the future aspirations, needs, and consumptionpatterns of older people;

c) How emerging technologies, such as exoskeletons and social robotics, etc., can be introduced toalter homes and places, how older people actually use (or do not use) them, and how thesetechnologies reshape roles and responsibilities in wellbeing and care;

d) Strategies for supporting older persons learning in all its forms;

e) Strategies for user involvement of the older in the design of social and physical environment andtechnologies;

f) A richer vision of a creative and active later life with technology as a basis for new designmethodologies;

g) The social, economic, health, cultural and political implications of particular scientific andtechnological innovations, current and past;

h) The potential of technology and learning to enhance the effectiveness of health services andsystems;

i) The development of organizational strategies and adaptive assistive technologies for securing thequality of life of older people, including the employability of older workers;

j) Insights about the needs and requirements of local authorities for supporting and enhancing theimplementation of new technologies and new management systems in elderly care.

Eligible applicants

Proposals can be submitted by applicants belonging to one of the following categories: public andprivate scientific research, technological and innovation institutions, universities, other highereducation institutions. Research active industry, NGOs, and other institutions such as privatecompanies, public institutions and other stakeholders involved in research activities, can participateas long as they are eligible for funding through national/regional eligibility criteria.

Partnership criteria

Consortia must involve a minimum of three eligible applicants from at least three different countriesparticipating in the call. The maximum number of eligible applicants in a consortium is seven.

Funding

Eligible costs and funding provisions may vary according to the respective funding organisation’sregulations. Each applicant is subject to the rules and regulations of their respective national/regional funding organisation. Names and contact details of the national funding organisations areavailable in the link below.

Projects duration

Maximum 3 years

More information at

http://www.jp-demographic.eu/calls/third-call/