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H2020Staff exchange2016–2019

DREAM · Social Participation for improving emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing in independently living older adults

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2016-02-01 → 2019-01-31
EU contribution
€931,500
Participants
8
Scheme
MSCA-RISE

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Social Participation for improving emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing in independently living older adults

The combination of longer life expectancy, evolving socio-economical norms and conditions, and new technologies are dramatically changing life after retirement, and not always for the better. In more and more countries, pensioners find themselves with many years in front of them, some of them likely characterized by reduced physical and cognitive abilities. This project aims at rethinking long life and understanding the context that can make this period of life more attractive. The specific angle we take is that of enabling older adults of all ages to learn, grow, interact, and contribute to society through ICT. In other words, we aim at enabling adults to be contributors to societal wellbeing. We generically refer to this group of abilities as life participation abilities, and we focus on these aspects because studies tell us that the ability of interacting and feeling useful and helpful to others is essential to a person’s wellbeing, sometimes more so than health. In doing so, we also took the bold commitment of training a new generation of researchers. The objective of the training path is to develop a profile that would allow students to pursue R&D projects aiming at designing, developing and evaluating technology to enable social participation and contributions by older adults. The desired impact is directly on happiness of older adults of any age and their integration in society. This not only benefits the target audience, but it impacts family members as well. If our working assumptions are correct, this also leads to more active and healthy individuals, more likely to be able to live independently, with all the well known societal benefits of independent living. Even a partial success in these aspects would translate to a tremendous positive impact on a very large portion of the population.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

The combination of longer life expectancy, evolving socio-economical norms and conditions, and new technologies are dramatically changing life after retirement, and not always for the better. In more and more countries, pensioners find themselves with many years in front of them, some of them likely characterized by reduced physical and cognitive abilities. For older adults, this span of time out of the workforce was traditionally devoted to the role (and source of great joy) of caring for grandchildren. However, this role is fading out because of increased mobility of children, which often live far away for work, love, or other reasons, leading to an increase of loneliness and social isolation. This project aims at rethinking long life and understanding the socio-economical context that can make this period of life more exiting and attractive.The specific angle we take is that of enabling older adults of all ages - and specifically including adults who cannot leave their home or that have reduced cognitive abilities - to learn, grow, interact, and contribute to society through ICT. In other words, we aim at enabling adults to be contributors to societal wellbeing. We generically refer to this group of abilities as life participation abilities, and we focus on these aspects because studies tell us that the ability of interacting and feeling useful and helpful to others is essential to a person’s wellbeing, sometimes more so than health.The multi- and inter-disciplinary nature of the project provides the perfect environment for collaboration and knowledge transfer. As such, it requires the expertise and perspective that only the consortium as a whole can provide. The synergies that we build in the project will help not only in the materialization of the solutions starting from the original problems, challenges and requirements, but they will also foster the growth of research and innovation skills of the researchers and institutions involved in the project.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRENTO · TrentoCoordinatorItaly
  • Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale · BellinzonaSwitzerland
  • MONGOLIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES · UlaanbaatarMongolia
  • POLSKO-JAPONSKA AKADEMIA TECHNIK KOMPUTEROWYCH · WARSZAWAPoland
  • UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA NUESTRA SENORA DE LA ASUNCION · AsuncionParaguay
  • UNIVERSIDAD DE COSTA RICA · San Pedro De Montes De Oca San JoseCosta Rica
  • UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES · SydneyAustralia
  • UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES SYSTEM · Quezon CityPhilippines

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union