According to a new Commission Staff Working Document, the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing has fulfilled its primary mission: to provide a cooperation platform for people involved in innovation for ageing well. The policy document describes how their initiatives have contributed to deployment and scaling-up of digital innovation in the EU.

Since its launch in 2011, the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) has mobilised a large community: over 1500 regional and local authorities, 3500 partners, and 500 leading organisations involved in innovation of health and care, including digital innovation, focusing on active and healthy ageing.
A range of mechanisms has been put in place to support cooperation, to increase visibility of good practice, as well as to enable exchange of knowledge. In that regard, the impact of the Partnership can be estimated by the level of engagement generated, as indicated by e.g. the number of submissions for Reference Site status, commitments to the action groups, or twinning activities.
Importantly, many partners consider that their engagement in the Partnership is worthwhile, as they repeatedly stressed during the last Conference of Partners.
Progress on digital innovation
Since the launch of the Partnership in 2011, there has also been much progress on digital innovation for active and healthy ageing across the EU, as illustrated by some cases of countries and regions mentioned in the report.
The partners have also been successful in connecting and engaging public and private stakeholders in the innovation value-chain to accelerate scaling-up innovation for active and healthy ageing.
Next steps
The current mandate of the EIP on AHA is valid until 2020. The Partnership is now expected to reflect on its future in the period beyond 2020, and on how it can build on its achievements and further improve its functioning and results.
The Commission considers that the Partnership can play an important role in delivering on policy orientations, especially regarding its Communication on Digital Health and Care.
More information
- Staff Working Document – Progress of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing
- EIP on AHA website
- Study: ‘Large-scale sustainable deployment of digitally-enabled innovation for health and care delivery to the ageing population‘
Article Source: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/progress-european-innovation-partnership-active-and-healthy-ageing