The Extended 3rd Call for Reference Sites is now open! Become a key player in driving regional innovation in active and healthy ageing across Europe. Deadline: 16th December 2019

Following the success of the 3rd Call for Reference Sites, awarding 77 excellent and committed Reference Sites last month, the European Commission, supported by Funka as Coordinator of the WE4AHA Coordination and Support Action, are pleased to announce the extension of this 3rd Call for Reference Sites.

Why extend the 3rd Call for Reference Sites?

Despite the success of the 3rd call, launched in June of this year, the EIP on AHA would like to extend its reach and encourage the participation of regions in even more countries, ensuring a balanced representation throughout Europe and beyond. In order to ensure that the EIP on AHA is fully inclusive, the extended call will target those countries which are currently underrepresented in the EIP on AHA, whilst maintaining the objective of identifying proven examples of innovation and examples of good policy and practice related to active and healthy ageing.

Important: Reference Sites that already submitted their application in summer 2019 do NOT have to re-apply.

What is a Reference Site?

Reference Sites represent an alliance or partnership of stakeholders within a region or major metropolitan area. Successful Reference Sites bring together a wide range of stakeholders (e.g. public bodies/care providers, industry, academia and civil society) into a coherent partnership to understand and address the challenges of delivering health and care services to an ageing population. These collaborations drive structural change far beyond the scope any one particular organisation could achieve on its own. They help to create an environment for other regions across Europe to learn, transfer and adapt knowledge to local realities, with regional, social and economic development as the long-term objective.

Why become a Reference Site?

Are you interested in becoming a Reference Site? It can bring many different benefits for your region, including:

• internationalisation and networking in a vibrant innovative community.
• internal regional system’s development and evolution by mutual learning.
• an enhanced strategic oversight and direction.
• an opportunity to become a catalyst in a region to bring other stakeholders on board to work collaboratively on the development of innovative solutions.
• an opportunity to scale up service delivery models by ensuring health and care providers are able to adopt innovative practices through capacity building.
• contribution to the development of Regional Strategies for Innovation, Economy and Smart Specialisation (amongst others).

The Reference Site status also provides regions and areas with an enhanced network and greater credibility to form consortia and proposals for EC funding programmes that complement and accelerate transfer and scaling up activities within and across regions.

What are the conditions to become a reference Site?

The EIP on AHA provides a framework for continuous improvement to enable any Reference Site to maintain and further improve its status, measured through the allocation of stars (1-4) according to their maturity. To be successful, applications should demonstrate:

• the involvement of government/health/care, research and academia, industry, civil society representatives (quadruple helix).
• the comprehensive strategies in place/under development supporting an active and healthy ageing population.
• a response to health, societal and economic challenges to deliver against the EIP on AHA triple win objectives.
• an alignment or a planned alignment with the EIP on AHA strategy and its three horizontal initiatives: th Blueprint, I2M and MAFEIP.
• the development of partnerships with other regions for the transfer and exchange of good practices.
• a commitment to supporting the Digital Transformation of Health and Care.
• the impact of good practices and the degree that they have scaled up smart health and care solutions for active and healthy ageing.

For the full conditions, please consult the Information and Guidance Document.

Who can apply?

The extended call is open to all applicants who:

• represent an alliance or partnership of stakeholders within a region or major metropolitan area.
• be any institution or entity that is in the position to act on the EIP on AHA topics, disregarding its legal status.

Important: Reference Sites that already submitted their application in summer 2019 do NOT have to re-apply.

How to apply?

All applications for the extended 3rd call for Reference Sites must be submitted via the online application form. This online form has four different sections which must ALL be filled out: 

 – Application Form Part I: About your organisation; Care model; Basic criteria 1&2

 – Application Form Part II: Criteria 1-2

 – Application Form Part III: Criteria 3-4

 – Application Form Part IV: Criteria 5-6

In order to help candidates to prepare their application, the following supporting documents are available:

• Information and Guidance Document
• Offline Self-Assessment Form
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the key dates for the Call?

• 24th  October. Call is published.
• 16th December. Deadline for submitting applications.
• Mid-January. Results of the evaluation by external experts will be published.

What support is available to applicants?

In addition to the aforementioned supporting documentation, three information and Q&A sessions about the call will be organised on the following dates:

• 5th November 2019 between 10:00 and 12:00. You can register here.
• 26th November 2019 between 10:00 and 12:00. You can register here.
• 10th December 2019 between 10:00 and 12:00. You can register here.  

Should you have any further questions or doubts related to the extended 3rd Call, please contact we4aha@funka.com.

Related action groups: 

A1 Adherence to prescription, A2 Falls prevention, A3 Lifespan Health Promotion & Prevention of Age Related Frailty and Disease, B3 Integrated care, C2 Independent living solutions, D4 Age friendly environments

Relevance to partnership: 

Active ageing and independent living, Care and cure, Horizontal issues and framework conditions, Prevention, screening and early diagnosis

Article source: https://ec.europa.eu/eip/ageing/news/extended-3rd-call-reference-sites-now-open-become-key-player-driving-regional-innovation-active_en