Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOS29.4.2016
The city of Porto, Portugal, has a new consortium created to foster the debate on active and healthy aging in the metropolitan area of Porto. Integrating different participants from Caregivers, to Industry, Academia and End users, Porto4Ageing gathers more than 80 organizations, among which is Fraunhofer AICOS.
The Municipality of Porto and the University of Porto have submitted Porto4Ageing for the Reference Site rating on European Active and Healthy Aging under the initiative European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing. Reference Sites are coalitions of regions, cities, integrated hospitals or care organizations that aim to provide concrete examples of innovative services with proven added value to citizens and care systems in EU regions. Some of them have contributed to growth and job creation in their areas and many have extended elements of their best practice from local to regional or national level. By showcasing Reference Sites, the European Commission aims to identify, rate and award the best places to see workable innovation in practice across Europe.
The official presentation of the application to the European Commission and presentation of the Consortium Porto4Ageing was on April 11. The application gathered 83 partners, of which 18 Caregivers; 12 from Industry; 37 from Academia; and 16 End users.
Among the dozens of partners from different profiles – universities and research centers, policy makers, users and industry – are the University of Porto, the Municipality of Porto, the CCDR-N, the Metropolitan Area of Porto, the Centro Hospitalar São João, the Centro Hospitalar do Porto, the IPO, the Santa Casa da Misericórdia do Porto, the Escola Superior de Enfermagem Santa Maria and several professional associations (medical doctors, nurses, psychologists, pharmacists, nutritionists).
Despite different backgrounds, goals and actions, Porto4Ageing is built on a shared vision and common objectives, where each organization actively contributes in a specific way to the overall objective of responding to the needs of citizens, especially in matters related to Active and Healthy Ageing in the Region of Porto. By involving a large number of institutions, Porto4Ageing consortium is committed to promoting the local convergence as improving health innovation ecosystem. The consortium intends to achieve this by contributing to the reduction of the differences between public and private actions and instruments.
About Fraunhofer Portugal
Associação Fraunhofer Portugal Research (Fraunhofer Portugal) is a non-profit private association founded by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the largest organization for applied research in Europe. Fraunhofer Portugal promotes and coordinates the cooperation between its research center, other research institutions and Industry partners, with the objective of undertaking applied research of direct utility to private and public enterprises and of wide benefit to society. Fraunhofer Portugal Research Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions (Fraunhofer AICOS), located in Porto, is the first research center operated by Fraunhofer Portugal, resulting from a strategic partnership between Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the University of Porto. It aims to enhance people’s living standards by offering them intuitive and useful technology solutions, capable of facilitating their access to Information and Communication Technologies, and therefore leading to the integration of an increasingly large part of the population in the Information and Knowledge Society.