Europe is ageing rapidly. To address the challenges posed by this unprecented demographic change, European local and regional authorities, universities, civil society organisations and industries, have already developed and implemented a large number of initiatives in the fields of public services, healthcare, ICT, transport, housing, accessibility, and social participation. Today, the AFE-INNOVNET Network is taking the opportunity of the first EU Summit on Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing to launch a Europe-wide repository set up to gather and share interesting initiatives and help make population ageing an opportunity for Europe’s economic and social growth. Learn from existing initiatives and share yours as well!

With more than 256 members today, the AFE-INNOVNET is an EU-funded Thematic Network aimed at supporting innovation in the field of age-friendly environments, i.e. the adaptation of our social and physical environments to our needs as we age, according to the WHO approach. Launched in February 2014, this network is contributing to the European Innovation Partnership on active and healthy ageing by creating an EU-wide community of stakeholders willing to implement a holistic approach to active and healthy ageing.

“These past years, many innovative solutions to support healthy ageing have been developed. Unfortunately up until now it was difficult to find information on these initiatives, notably on their impact and socio-economic benefits, making their scale-up difficult”, said Anne-Sophie Parent, Secretary General of AGE Platform Europe and coordinator of the AFE-INNOVNET Network. With already around 40 initiatives available, and up to 100 expected ones in the coming year, the project partners aim to make this repository a reference in the EU in the field of age-friendly environments.

Articulated around the WHO eight domains of age-friendliness (housing, transport, social participation, access to services, built environment, information, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment), the repository gathers information on ageing-related initiatives that are planned, on-going, or already completed, and facilitate their clustering. Key information on their impact and outcomes is also collected to support an evidence based assessment of their social and economic benefits.

Are you involved in an initiative contributing to active and healthy ageing and wish to share your experience with others? Let us know as well here!

The AFE-INNOVNET Network is open to new partners. Interested? Please visit the project website (http://www.afeinnovnet.eu/). You may subscribe to the  AFE-INNOVNET monthly newsletter, join the Network, contribute to the blog and participate in the discussions. You can also join the conversation on LinkedIn and Twitter.

For more information, please contact Julia Wadoux, AFE-INNOVNET Coordinator, at [email protected] or Tel.: +32.2.280.14.70.