22 - 25 Septemebr 2015, Ghent, Belgium.Europe's biggest and most important event on Ambient Assisted Living, the AAL Forum 2015 is coming to Ghent, Belgium. The event is an initiative of the AAL Programme, supported by IWT, the Flemish agency for innovation by science and technology, and is organized in collaboration with iMinds.
What is the Ambient Assisted Living?
Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is ICT-enabled independent living by using products and services for better lives and functional capability of older adults to promote a healthier lifestyle and to support carers, families and care organizations. It is broadly speaking about older adults and people who take care of them, who will have an existing requirement for ICT solutions dependent on their lifestyle, physical or mental health, now or in the future.
The AAL Forum is the annual platform for our increasing European AAL community to meet and discuss several topics, relevant for improving the AAL Programme as well as the adoption of AAL solutions in the market. The event aims to offer participants high interactivity and hands on experience on the ultimate technology that the AAL world can offer today. It combines interactive sessions and workshops with an interesting exhibition area. Initiatives from the Flanders care sectors and care living labs will be showcased while end users will be heavily involved.
The Forum's mains objectives are to exhibit and demonstrate existing or developing ICT solutions (products and services), promote networking within the community, foster the interest of other sectors in the field of AAL, provoke debate and discussion on various topics and highlight new or emerging developments in the area to inform the AAL community.
AAL Forum 2015 offers a variety of sponsorship and exhibition opportunities suitable for organizations of all sizes. Sponsors and exhibitors gain visibility for their companies and can make use of the many networking and business opportunities during the Forum.
For further information, please visit:
http://www.aalforum.eu
About Active and Assistive Living (AAL) Programme
The Active and Assistive Living (AAL) programme funds projects in public-private partnership in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) for active and healthy ageing since 2008. The programme was renamed in 2014 after being renewed for a second phase (the first was from 2008 until 2013 and was named Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme) and it is co-financed by the European Commission - under the Horizon 2020 umbrella - and 19 countries until 2020 for an estimated budget of € 700 million.
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. Since 2008, AAL has issued 7 calls for proposals each focusing on different issues and has funded 154 trans-national innovations projects with over 1000 partners. Almost half of these project partners are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are collaborating with user organisations, large enterprises, universities and research organisations in the development of innovative solutions. The 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.
The AAL projects aim at introducing their solution to the market within 2 to 3 years after the end of the project. For this reason, as part of their funded work, the projects perform pilot tests in realistic settings and develop their business model together with the most relevant players of the value network. In the first phase of AAL, some projects already accomplished their way to market (see selected success stories).
The AAL Programme also organises its annual event, the AAL Forum, to showcase the products and solutions of the projects and to bring together the different stakeholders in the domain in an open and interactive arena. The AAL Forum has become a reference for the AAL community in Europe with an average of 700 attendees.