EU_SHAFE and SmartWork Online event – Contribution to the discussion on Green Paper on Ageing

The Green Paper on Ageing, which was released by the European Commission at the beginning of the year, seeks to launch a wide public debate on this issue. The Green Paper sets out the key issues related to ageing and discusses possible ways to anticipate and respond  to the socio-economic impacts of Europe’s ageing population. 
The Paper was open for public consultations till 21 April. ECHAlliance led two responses to the document: on behalf of the EU_SHAFE consortium, focusing on enabling smart healthy age-friendly environments, and on behalf of SmartWork, engaging additionally four other Horizon 2020 projects, which focus on building sustainable and age-friendly working environments for all. In their commentary they called for better recognition of the potential and the role of new technologies in keeping the older people at work and in good health in the Green Paper and the future policy responses.

Organised by the EU_SHAFE and SmartWork projects, the webinar aims at:

• Identifying the areas of policy response that need further development, e.g. use of the new technologies for keeping the older people at work and in good health.
• Highlighting examples of  the technological developments that close the gap between technological developments and end-users real needs and expectations.
• Discussing the socio-economic aspects, i.e. the availability of the devices and the internet, and their cost, as well as health and digital literacy of the users. 
• Leveraging the networking opportunities for the organisations developing the solutions and those that can potentially deploy them.

AGENDA 

11:00 – Welcome and iIntroductions to the webinar 

11:05 – Part I –  Setting the scene: EU Policy developments on active and healthy ageing 

• EU Council Conclusions on Mainstreaming Ageing in Public Policies, Bruno Ribeiro Barata, Counsellor for Social Policy at the Portuguese Permanent Representation to the European Union 
• Green Paper on Ageing: Irina Kalderon Libal, Policy Officer, European Commission, DG CNECT – eHealth, Well-Being and Ageing
• EU_SHAFE Project:  Josè Miguel Corres Abasolo, Council of Bizkaia

11:35 – Part II – Plenary discussion: The role of new technologies in keeping the older people at work and in good health 

• Claudia Fernandez Rivera, Technological University Dublin
• Charalampos Vassiliou, BYTE, SmartWork project 
• Carina Dantas, Chair NET4AgeFriendly, SHINE 2 Europe
• Joan Martin, President EU Covenant Demographic Change, Louth County Council

12:25 – Conclusions and next steps for EU Ageing Policy 

About EU SHAFE & SmartWork Projects

The EU_SHAFE project (Interreg Europe) will improve policies and practices in 7 European regions by developing a comprehensive approach to Smart Healthy Age-Friendly Environments (SHAFE). Through a ‘learning by sharing’ methodology, this robust multi-disciplinary and intersectoral consortium will build a four-helix European community to exchange experiences and practices to improve multilevel policy instruments. The consortium will create a cooperative, inclusive ecosystem between public authorities, European networks and user’s associations, embedding their experience and skills with research & design knowledge from academia and SMEs for the growth of community-based services and “ageing at home” around Europe. GREEN PAPER RESPONSE 

The SmartWork project (Horizon 2020) is supporting active and healthy ageing at work for older office workers, through a suite of smart services, building a Worker-Centric AI System for work ability sustainability. In other words, keeping ageing people working for longer by supporting them with unobtrusive sensing and monitoring of their health, behaviour, cognitive and emotional status, and responding to their needs. GREEN PAPER RESPONSE