Call for contributions

“Partnerships for social innovation in Europe” 

Presentations in the tracks/sessions of the AAL Forum

The annual conference of the Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme, the AAL Forum, will take place in Lecce, Italy, between 26 and 28 September 2011.

The AAL Forum, this year in its third edition, is a European conference co-organized by the AAL Joint Program (AALJP), the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), the Puglia Region, the Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystem of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IMM), the Italian Association Ambient Assisted Living (AitAAL), the Province of Lecce, the Municipality of Lecce and Roma Multiservizi.

The objective of the AAL Forum is twofold: on the one hand the conference aims to show the significant progresses made by the AALJP projects and its practical implications on the daily life of seniors. On the other hand a considerable attention will be dedicated to the most recent EU initiatives, like the pilot European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing.

The main conference tracks will be:

TRACK A:   Wellbeing & Care

TRACK B:   Social interactions

TRACK C:   Independence and participation in the self-serve society

TRACK D:   AAL Future Calls

TRACK E:   European Policies

The call for contributions is open only for specific sessions in the following tracks:

TRACK A:   Wellbeing & Care

TRACK B:   Social interactions

TRACK C:   Independence and participation in the self-serve society

TRACK D:   AAL Future Calls

Important Dates:

Guidelines for the submission:

Contributions should be submitted in an electronic format, as an Abstract/Outline, using the template below.  The closing date of submission is the 20th of May 2011. Please send your contributions to the following e-mail address:

call@aal-europe.eu

The AAL Forum Programme Committee will select contributions and approve on the 20^th May 2011. Authors of accepted contributions will be informed immediately.

If your contribution is approved, you will be invited as a speaker. However you will be required to meet the costs of registration, travel and accommodation.

The conference language will be English.

Selected contributions will be made available on the website of the AAL Forum: legacy.aalforum.eu

Contribution template: downloadable version

TRACK A: WELL BEING & CARE

The track wellbeing & care will focus on wellbeing, health and care of older people with chronic conditions – physical as well as mental/cognitive – and their informal carers. The track consists of five sessions. Two sessions will be organised around AAL projects with a common focus: projects developing solutions for people with cognitive impairments/dementia and their network and projects stimulating physical activity as an important factor for wellbeing and health. The aim of these sessions is to bring them together, discuss relevant aspects regarding the solutions that are developed, exchange experiences regarding success factors and problems and learn from each other. One session will facilitate networking and interaction between AAL projects and visitors of the AAL FORUM.

The call for contributions is open for the following sessions:

A1: The role and needs of informal carers of people with chronic conditions.
Carers – formal and informal – play a crucial role in the support and care of older people with chronic conditions, thus contributing to their wellbeing and care. Informal carers are (implicitly) included in the target groups of AAL solutions, sometimes as primary end users, sometimes as secondary end users (together with formal carers/care organisations).

For this session we would like to receive contributions from (national or EC) projects explicitly focussing on supporting informal carers and involving them in the development process.

A5: Wellbeing & care for older people in 2035?
This session will explore the future needs and desires regarding wellbeing and care of older people in 2035?
What are the ‘gaps’ in AAL? Which needs/wishes/topics is AAL JP ignoring, regarding wellbeing & care of older people with chronic conditions and cognitive impairments?  

For this session we are ‘scanning the horizon’ for visions, studies, approaches, topics that should be taken into account in the area of wellbeing & care for older people with chronic conditions and cognitive impairments?

TRACK B:  SOCIAL INTERACTION

The focus of this track will be on Social Interaction and related subtopics. The track consists of five sessions. The sessions will be organised around AAL projects. The aim of the track is to bring them together, discuss relevant aspects regarding solutions which could be developed, exchange experiences regarding success factors and problems and learn from each other. Specific sessions on business aspects, end-use involvement as well as ethical issues will be organised.

The call for contributions is open for the following sessions:

Session B1: Social Interaction – Focus on Gender Differences and Rural / Urban Areas

End-users wishes and needs regarding social interaction may be very different. Men and women may have very different expectations in terms of useful solutions as they grow older. How does e.g. the way they used to live influence their expectations? It may also play a role whether they live in a rural or an urban area. Do these differences impact the business plan?

For this session we would like to receive contributions from AAL projects (AAL JP, EC and national projects) and studies that address these topics.

Session B2: Social Interaction – Focus on Social Community Networks and ICT-based Services

The session will be organised around the following questions: What is the behaviour of older persons regarding social networks? What assumptions do and did projects have regarding the willingness of older persons to use social networks and to reveal personal data? Did the assumptions prove to be right? What other assumptions have been made? Did they prove to be right? What are the related barriers and opportunities for business?

For this session we would like to receive contributions from AAL projects (AAL JP, EC and national projects) and studies that address these topics.

Session B5: Social Interaction of Older Persons in 2035

In this session we will explore the future needs and wishes regarding social interaction of older persons. Questions may include: Will future generations of older persons have different needs and wishes as compared to present day older generations? Will e.g. the increasing number of single households change the patterns of social interaction? Digital illiteracy is diminishing: What effect will this have? What technologies will be available and how will we use them?

For this session we are ‘scanning the horizon’ for visions, studies, approaches, topics that should be taken into account in the area of social interaction of older persons.

TRACK C: INDEPENDENCE & PARTICIPATION IN THE `SELF-SERVE SOCIETY´

A self-serve society is needed in Europe to reduce the care-giving expenses. This represents both benefits and challenges to citizens as well as care providers, public and private. The main goal of Track C is to enable a better cooperation and discussion between the FP6/FP7 projects, the CIP projects and also national funded projects with AAL JP projects to point out the actual problems in the self-serve society and ensure a better efficiency of new projects in this area.  

The call for contributions is open for the following sessions:

C1: Taking part in the self-serve society

Taking active part in the self-serve society is required as long as possible. Support is needed since the ICT-based self-serve society presents problems, in particular for older people with little or no familiarity with technology, possibly even suffering impairments. Are elderly accepting the solutions? How to overcome the technological barriers? How can we improve the solutions to provide more trust? What are the next necessary steps and trends?

C2: Access to information

Improvements of older peoples’ access to information can foster the acceptance, trust and the use of services. One major problem of today’s solutions is to find the necessary information, especially when people are on the way. Additionally, handicaps and diseases can hinder the access to information. What type of services are available? What kind of knowledge is necessary to use the services? Which experience and problems are known? How can we guarantee safe and secure access?

C3: User interfaces and User interaction

Services elderly people want to use, need to be readily and clearly accessible via interfaces that can be easily integrated into their lifestyles. Services are often not used as the interfaces are unfamiliar and off-putting. New user-oriented intuitive interfaces can overcome the acceptance barrier to the use of AAL services when they are able to enhance the joy of life and fun by using these services. What are the trends for new simple intuitive interfaces depending on age? Which technology is most sufficient for the elderly?

C4: Self-services in daily living

This session is focused on integration of new ICT-based solutions to be provided by existing (or new) service providers, channels or market segments, adapted to the seniors’ need. There is an urgent need that services have to be easily accessible by the elderly and that they are easy to use. How to make services more humane? How to personalize the services? How can we manage that people use a service? Is the whole chain covered?

For the sessions C1, C2, C3 and C4 we would like to receive contributions from AAL projects related to the session-specific topic (EC and national projects) and studies that address these topics.

TRACK D:   FUTURE CALLS  

The main aspect of track D is to offer to the AAL Community and various groups of stakeholders an opportunity at the AAL Forum to take part in the preparation of future call topics. The results of the sessions in track D will serve as input to the further development of the AAL Joint Programme.

The call for contributions is open for the following sessions:

D2: Information/Learning/User Interfaces

Life-long learning is a requirement in a rapidly changing environment, not only to keep up with technological developments. Therefore, older adults should be supported in keeping up to date with developments in order to remain included in society. Interfaces play a major role in accessing new solutions. Important aspects are e.g. contributions of older people to society – across generations as well as to their peers (teach, inform, help, support others) and enriching their own daily life. 

D3: Home Care – informal and professional care

Today, family care is the predominant model of support for older people. However, professional care services are in many cases indispensible. Demographic changes and individualized family structures will require new concepts of care. Thus demographic change will provide opportunities for new technological solutions for the daily problems as e.g. personal hygiene, sufficient nutrition or getting dressed. 

D4: Prevention

The interrelated effects of increasing chronic conditions and the ageing of the population force policy makers to change the paradigm of health care and care. Primary prevention comes more and more into the focus of new health concepts. Individualisation of responsibilities and activities as well as “health” as part of daily living activities are main features of primary prevention. Health care and wellness merge and therefore new commercial markets emerge in close relation to the organised health market. A respective integration of users and business concepts is necessary to achieve the opportunities and has to be demanded. 

D5: AAL at Work

“AAL at work” has to be part of employment and work-place-related policies to meet the main objectives of companies, trade unions and governments, through:

• increasing productivity and competitiveness through sustaining and increasing the competences of senior workforce
• maintaining the security and improving the health of the workforce
• improved compatibility of work and private life taking cross generations into account

Technology development and systems solutions have to be adapted to structures already existing in the workplace and work organisation; they have to be really “assistive”, which imposes a specific challenge on developers.

Each session will start with 3 brief presentations (15 min each). Contributions are requested for presentations considering the issue from

• an end-users,
• business or
• technology/research perspective, respectively.

Note: Speakers must not present their work and their institutions, but give input to the session to facilitate the ensuing discussion.