Due to the increased incidence, prevalence and mortality of chronic diseases and multimorbidity, the need of palliative care (PC) resources is a challenge for health and social care systems. However, currently, access to PC remains inconsistent and, due to the ageing population, it is expected an increase in the rate of people requiring this kind of care over the next 25 years. The project Patient-centred pathways of early palliative care, supportive ecosystems and appraisal standard (INADVANCE) proposes a novel model of PC based on early integration and personalized pathways addressed specifically to older people with complex chronic conditions. Thus, the overall aim of INADVANCE is to improve the benefit of PC through the design of effective, replicable and cost-effective early PC interventions centred-on and oriented-by the patients. Interventions are defined for/orientated on patients, families, informal caregivers, and front-line care professionals. In order to achieve this main goal, INADVANCE will produce the following evidence-based outputs to assist care professionals, service managers and policy and decision-makers in their scalability and replicability: a) stratification tools to identify potential beneficiaries of early PC actions; b) optimized interventions co-designed by needs and preferences from patients and their relatives; c) eHealth tools addressed to empower palliative patients ecosystem; d) policy recommendations and clinical guidelines addressed to service providers and policy and decision makers; e) an appraisal standard and dashboard facilitating a critical and comprehensive comparison between actions and interventions derived from the project. The INADVANCE consortium brings together leading interdisciplinary academic, clinical and technological partners from EU organizations actively responding challenges from health and social care systems and policy-makers in the field.

WE4AHA will advance the effective, large-scale uptake and impact of Digital Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA), building on a comprehensive set of support and promotion services. Through WE4AHA’s centralised administration, coordination and external communication, the relevant stakeholders will be mobilised to help develop and implement three EU guided activities: Innovation to Market (I2M), Blueprint Digital Transformation of Health and Care for the Ageing Society, and EIP on AHA. WE4AHA will support the definition and execution of an I2M plan, further development of the Blueprint to drive the policy vision on digital innovation, and the consolidation of EIP on AHA Action Groups and Reference Sites. It will connect demand- and supply-side stakeholders through matchmaking, twinning, assessing innovative interventions using MAFEIP, and fostering engagement and many other support activities. It will leverage additional private and public investments by mobilising a growing number of stakeholders in Europe’s digital health and care and silver economy sectors - industry, public authorities, end users, financial institutions, investors, insurers, and research communities committed to innovate on a large-scale. WE4AHA will draw on its numerous, strong synergies and links to relevant H2020 R&I actions and other EU and international programmes. The highly interdisciplinary consortium will ensure the proper execution of the work plan by leveraging the partners’ access to expertise and evidence. The consortium composition is an unparalleled matching of partners with strategic competences in health and active ageing and leading experts in policy analysis, research and innovation oriented to business, ICT enabling technologies, stakeholder engagement, communication, dissemination and the multiplier effect. Additional support is provided through a pool of experts and an Advisory Board of key stakeholder organisations with high-level competences in relevant fields.

Background: Virtual coaching can play an important role in sustaining Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) through early risk detection and tailored intervention in smart living environments. However, current technologies are not easily customized to individual needs, provide limited interaction, and are often intrusive. Aims and Relevance: Based on an excellent international cooperation between Europe and Japan, e-VITA proposes an innovative approach to virtual coaching that addresses the crucial domains of AHA: cognition, physical activity, mobility, mood, social interaction, leisure, and spirituality, thus empowering older adults to better manage their own health and daily activities, resulting in improved well-being and improved stakeholder collaboration. The e-VITA virtual coach will provide individualized profiling and personalized recommendations based on big data analytics and social-emotional computing beyond the state-of-the-art. Approach: The virtual coach will detect preventative potentials and risks in the user’s daily living environment by collecting data from external sources and non-intrusive sensors and will provide support through natural interactions with 3D-holograms, emotional objects, or robotic technologies using multimodal and spoken dialogue technology, advanced knowledge graph representations and data fusion. Interoperability and data privacy will be guaranteed using FIWARE and a federated data AI platform. Proof of concept: A support system will be provided to enable the elderly users to learn and use the virtual coaching system. The coaching system will be deployed and evaluated in the living environments of healthy older adults in France, Germany, Italy, and Japan to assess its feasibility and efficacy. The results of e-VITA include also new standards and policies beyond technology, and will be consequently exploited and transferred across Europe, Japan and worldwide.

Europe has the largest percentage of older adults worldwide. Yet, there is a high prevalence of ageism; the complex and often negative construction of old age, in society at large, and among researchers and practitioners in particular. In contrast to the wide prevalence of ageism, the majority of research, to date, has targeted racism and sexism and neglected to address ageism. A similar neglect is found on the policy side, as age is still not an explicit part of a U.N. declaration of human rights. To address these shortcomings, EuroAgeism is focused on harmonising different theoretical and methodological disciplines in the field of ageism. It aims to bring together science and policy by creating an opportunity for a true dialogue that will allow graduates of the program to capture positions as scientists, educators, science advisers, policy advocates, lobbyists, or legislators in the field of ageism. EuroAgeism will advance the field by delivering an attractive multi-disciplinary (social science, health science, engineering, and design), inter-sectorial (academia, healthcare, non-governmental, inter-governmental, and governmental organizations), international (North, East, and Central Europe, Middle East, Pan-European, and international) research, training and supervision program on ageism. The proposed research is a direct response to the European Commission's Active and Healthy Ageing initiative, with an overarching goal to improve the quality of life of older people. By pursuing15 research projects, we aim to achieve the following goals: a) explore ways to improve the active participation of older adults in the workforce; b) address ageism in relation to access to goods and services, and c) promote an age-friendly society, which helps older adults to realize their full potential. EuroAgeism is dedicated to dissemination of the findings to policy stakeholders and the general public to decrease ageism in everyday life, in clinical and in social practice.