PT | FR | ES

1. PROJECT PRESENTATION

1. Project aims

Senior citizen economy, or Silver Economy, represents a great economic opportunity for south-west Europe, which will have the oldest population on the continent by the year 2050. In this context, the ICT4SILVER project proposes to research and satisfy the needs of the elderly in different fields (especially of those living in rural areas) and to place this knowledge at the service of circa 30 SMEs in five different SUDOE regions. This will allow the creation, refinement and marketing of products and services based on the new information and communication technologies, which will be adapted to the needs of this sector of the population.

The "Silver Economy" can be defined as the economic opportunities arising from the public and consumer expenditure related to population ageing and the specific needs of the population over 50. The ageing population can be divided in 3 groups, each with their own need-patterns: active, fragile and dependant.

Thus, the Silver Economy comprises a large part of the general consumer economy, but with considerable differences in spending priorities and patterns.

<More information: http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/pdf/active-healthy-ageing/silvereco.pdf >

2. Project consortium

The ICT4SILVER consortium is comprised of 8 partners:

1. Agence de Développement et d'Innovation Aquitaine Limousin Poitou-Charentes. FR

2. GIP Autonom'Lab. FR

3. Home Care Lab, S. Coop. ES

4. Fundación Knowledge Innovation Market Barcelona. ES

5. Fundación Tecnalia Research & Innovation. ES

6. Asociación de Industrias de las Tecnologías Electrónicas y de la Información del País Vasco. ES

7. Associação TICE.PT. PT

8. Cluster TIC Santé aquitain. FR

9. Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave. PT

These partners belong to SUDOE regions: Cataluña (ES), Centro (PT), Norte (PT), Nouvelle-Aquitaine (FR), País Vasco (ES).

< More information https://www.interreg-sudoe.eu/gbr/projects/the-approved-projects/164-ict-key-enabling-technologies-to-meet-the-needs-of-silver-economy-in-the-sudoe-area >

2. THE CALL

1. Background of the call

The consortium partners have identified key obstacles and challenges that SILVER ECONOMY actors are nowadays facing in the areas of:

• Health and social care;

• Autonomy / homecare;

• Housing and urban planning;

• Transport and mobility;

• Ageing prevention: nutrition, sport and well-being, active ageing, tourism for health.

Moreover, the partners have also identified possible challenges that ICT companies may face while willing to enter the Silver Economy market such as:

• Ethical / legal (e.g. Intellectual Property, Data Property and Privacy constraints)

• Financing (e.g. Economic difficulties for access to technology, Lack of investment on prevention, Scale-up - industrialization and productizing)

• Market demand (e.g. Technology transfer to market, Customer/user Motivation, SE market segmentation)

• Social sciences (e.g. Organizational Change resistance, Elderly profile diversity, Inter-generational interaction)

• Technology (e.g. Integration – interoperability, difficulty to implement Living Labs tests)

2. What is the goal of this call?

This call aims to engage SMEs that have ICT solutions/products with application on the Silver Economy (currently or envisioned), and provide them the possibility to have those products featured in pilot demonstrators at partner living labs of the ICT4SILVER project, aiding in the validation of those products by real users (elderly or caretakers).

The elderly needs fulfilled by these product/solutions include (not restricted to):

• Fall prevention;

• Outdoor orientation support;

• Medicine ministration reminders;

• Localisation devices;

• Emergency communication;

• Social interaction improvement devices;

• Memory stimulus applications;

• Promote adapted physical activity: physical mobility aid and stimulus;

• Nutrition advice/control/assistance;

• On-line Remote advice/assistance;

• Caring support for care organization (e.g. social and home care) and for informal caregivers, including career improvement and coordination of information;

• Helping to overcome architectural constraints;

• Architectural support in planning, transforming or adapting buildings considering elderly limitations;

• Home adaptability diagnosis assistance solution;

• Assess the determining factors of frailty and prevent the loss of autonomy.

• Transports advice/planning/assistance: Secure travels and transfers;

• Driving assistance;

• Multi-device easy integration: Mobile/IoT/Communications;

• Identify adapted transports and paths considering the needs and capacities/capabilities of the elderly;

• Improved maintenance services in general for all equipment and devices for the elderly.

By applying to this call, SMEs commit to provide the necessary resources and commitment to reach the fixed goals.

It is planned to involve circa 30 products/services in 10 pilot demonstrators (meaning, 10 deployments of combinations of technologies and solutions). The goal is to involve up to 30 SMEs in the project. Consortium proposals, with synergies between products/solutions, are highly encouraged. Consortiums can be comprised of more than 3 SMEs.

What is provided to the applicant?

1. A partner institution to host the Pilot as demonstrator (we have the goal of reaching more than 100 real users in the pilots);

   • To facilitate and enable the access to end users, ensuring the recruitment of elderly people and professionals;

   • Living lab environment to carry out the Pilot and partner institution’s expertise in this field;

   • Monitoring of the Pilot performance;

   • Depending on each individual pilot, tests may take place in the 5 SUDOE regions of ICT4SILVER.

2. In-place mentoring including:

   • Advise on business plan;

   • Advise on legal/ethical procedures;

   • Usability improvement.

3. Suggestion and assistance on data persistence and report design;

4. Dissemination of product and services through the partner institution’s newsletters, events, and trade fairs, in accordance to applicant will;

5. In addition to in-person meetings, the promotion of Webinars with other participant regions in order to share information on the different pilots, products/solutions tested and results;

6. Sharing of global results generated in the project, under participant agreement, preserving the confidentiality of the detailed data about products and tests. The involved SMEs will be consulted before any general information is made public and details will be made explicit in the contract signed at the beginning of the test.

Note that all direct costs from the tests (equipment, technical support, travelling, etc.), must be supported by the SME, whenever applicable (and dependent on the type of product and, also, on the resources of the SME).

3. Applicant’s Eligibility criteria

The eligibility criteria are the following:

• The response can be filled by one SME or by a consortium of different organizations, but in this case, the consortium must be led by a SME;

• The leader of the consortium has to be a SME according to the European definition: (http://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/business-friendly-environment/sme-definition_en);

• The SMEs and all the consortium participants applying must prove that are in good standing in terms of taxes and social security;

• The applicant or every organization in the consortium has to be established in the SUDOE AREA meaning:

• the applicant needs to own the technology it will proposed or to have the rights of exploitation;

• the technology proposed has to be a TLR of 6 minimum : “technology demonstrated in relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)” (http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2014_2015/annexes/h2020-wp1415-annex-g-trl_en.pdf);

• The technology has to answer at least one need/topic in the SE from above and has to be linked to at least one of the fields of activity of the SE;

• The proposal has to be transmitted via the dedicated application form
  ( http://web.ipca.pt/ict4silver );

• The proposal has to contain all the requested information;

• The proposal has to be transmitted before the (28^th of April) 12^th of May.

3. SELECTION CRITERIA FOR SMEs AND CONSORTIUMS

1. Selection criteria

The selection criteria set includes:

• Quality and relevance of the SME or the consortium involved in the proposal;

• Quality and relevance of the proposed product/solution;

• Robustness of the technical description of the product/service:

  • Clear, Understandable and complete;

  • TRL level / maturity of solution (a minimum TRL of 6 is mandatory);

  • Company's capacity to deploy and provide remote support to the pilots.

• Budget effectiveness and business strategy:

  • Business plan and feasibility to bring solution to market;

  • Clearly defined IP protection strategy;

  • Business strategy;

  • Well planned marketing and/or distribution channels;

  • Financing means to scale-up.

2. Selection procedure:

• A selection committee will be created with the ICT4SILVER partners, with at least 1 representative per partner;

• The selection will be made by the consortium, according to the described criteria;

• All decisions will be final, and there will be no re-evaluation of any application;

• The selection committee will evaluate each proposal according to the following ponderation criteria:

Quality and relevance of the SME or the consortium in the project	25%
Quality and relevance of the proposed product/service;	25%
Robustness of the technical description of the product/service	25%
Budget effectiveness and business strategy	25%

3. Engagement from SME or CONSORTIUM, ICT4SILVER Partners and LIVING LABS

After the selection, a contract will be signed between the SME or the consortium, the ICT4SILVER partners and the Living Lab where the experimentation will be taking place describing:

• the confidentiality agreement between the stakeholders;

• the financial aspect of the proposed support;

• the commitment expected from each stakeholder;

• the experimentation reporting conditions.

The ICT4SILVER partners assure the applicant that we will not disclosed any element contained in its proposal.

4. APPLYING TO THIS CALL

1. Information requested

The following information has to be transmitted via the dedicated application form

( http://web.ipca.pt/ict4silver ):

1. Presentation of the applicant

• Presentation of the SME or each participant in the consortium:

  • Identification information;

  • Activity presentation;

  • Organization presentation.

• If you present as a consortium, presentation of the partnership: part of each participant, added-value of each partner, and a description of the consortium as a whole.

2. Presentation of the product/service expected/targeted to be tested, namely:

• Product description Flyer (max 2 pages);

• The proposed product/service to be tested:

  • Need/Topic of the Silver Economy associated and how it’s an answer to it;

  • Description of the individual components (parts, assemblies, items) composing the expected product/service, and how they operate together;

  • Justification of the claimed level of TRL components and products/service expected;

  • Technical specificities of the product/service expected/targeted to be tested;

  • Documents of presentation (max 2 pages).

• Product/service usage specification, including user profile, target population;

• Product usability constraints, such as:

  • Internet access and specific protocols required;

  • Access to a Smartphone (and its specifications);

  • Ergonomic or physical characteristics constraints;

  • Required specific skills (and respective level);

  • Architectural constraints.

• Desired Test environment and team demonstrator criteria;

• Elements allowing an evaluation of the business strategy: price, distribution channel, production capacity, business plan etc. (max of 4 pages);

• Elements proving you own the technology or you have the rights of exploitation (max of 2 pages)

The entire set of attached files cannot exceed a total of 10 pages.

2. Administrative procedures:

Timeframe and Logistics

• The deadline for applying to this Call is (April 28, 2017) May 12, 2017. The platform will close at the end of that date, and will not allow any late submission.

• Applicant should respond in the languages of their region: French or Portuguese or Spanish or English, and also need to provide a brief overall presentation text in English.

• Applications will only be considered if submitted directly through the platform.

• The pilot demonstrators will take place within the period from October 2017 to May 2018.

Contacts:

Online submission form:

< http://web.ipca.pt/ict4silver >

Email:

< silvereco@adi-na.fr >

< ict4silver@ipca.pt >