Ambient Assisted Living, AAL

Joint Programme

Overview, Context, Call 2

AAL Info Day, 9 March, 2009, Stockholm

Monica Winge NCP AAL, Sweden, VINNOVA

Silas Olsson
AAL Association, Central Management Unit
AAL Central Office, Brussels

http://www.aal-europe.eu/
 Ambient Assisted Living
Joint Programme
• New funding programme for Europe – Based on EU
article 169
– 2008 – 2013,
total volume ~ 600 M€
of which 50 % public funding, 50 % private funding
– Member state driven programme
– EC participation based on article 169 of the EC treaty

• Status and outlook

– Launch of first call for proposals in April 2008
– Launch of first projects – early 2009
– Launch event of the second call for proposals, 13 February
2009
– First annual AAL conference – Vienna autumn 2009
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 Overall objectives …

“The overall objective of the AAL joint programme is to

enhance the quality of life of older people and strengthen
the industrial base in Europe through the use of Information
and Communication Technologies (ICT).”

• Quality of life of elderly people

• Strengthening the industrial base in
Europe
• Use of ICT

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 Objectives of AAL JP

• Develop products and services for

aging well at home, in the community
and at work
• Create critical mass of R&D and
Innovation at European level
• Create markets through common and
compatible European solutions
• Include SME´S at all levels of activities
 Organisation of the AAL Association
Legal Entity of AAL JP

AAL Association

General Assembly
Final decision body of the association
European
Commission
Executive Board Working Groups
6 Members working programme
Represents the Association Call preparation
Manages workshops
legal relations; work programme; budget ,calls etc

Advisory Group
Management Unit
Central Management Unit Staff – 4-5 persons
National Coordinators - one per country
 Needs and Opportunities
Thematic Areas
Ambient Assisted Living

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 The first Call (closed 21 Aug. 2008)

Prevention and management of chronic conditions

• Solutions for elderly persons with identified risk

factors and/or chronic conditions
• Aiming at solutions centred on the elderly person
(not the professional or an organization), including citizen
empowerment and peer support
• Focused but not restricted to home environment, also
solutions within the community and when
travelling can be proposed
• Focusing on solutions that keep the individual out of
the long-term care and hospitals.
• Objective is to enhance the individual’s autonomy,
independence and quality of life
• Collaborative projects
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 Second Call for Proposals

ICT based solutions for Advancement of

Social Interaction of Elderly People
• Living actively and enjoying life
– To ensure that people are allowed and enabled to
choose lifestyle and activities as well as their level of
social interaction
• Bridging distances
– Physical, psychological or cultural distances may hinder
people from maintaining and supporting existing roles
and the ability to define new roles
• Preventing loneliness and isolation
– Elderly persons have a higher risk of suffering from
loneliness than other age groups
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 AAL thematic areas

2008

2009

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 Characteristics of AAL
collaborative projects
• Time-to-market perspective of 2 to 3 years after the project
end
• Project total budget: 1 - 7 M€
• Max. funding from the AAL Joint Programme: 3 M€.

• Significant involvement of industry and other business

partners, particularly SMEs (i.e.: the budget/effort
associated with these partners should be in balance with
those of other partners)
• Realistic trial set-up at the end of the project

• Proactive end-user involvement throughout the life of the

project

• Defined market segment(s), use cases and target group(s)

and address the wishes and10needs of these specific
group(s).
 … common European funding
activity, national participation rules

• Central submission of proposals (one proposal per

consortium)

• General and national eligibility criteria

• Central evaluation and selection of proposals

• National funding agreements and administration of the

funded projects

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 General Eligibility Criteria
(1)
• Submission of a complete proposal through the AAL
electronic submission system, before the deadline, as
specified in the Call for Proposals

• English as the language of the proposal

• Size of the consortium: 3-10 partners

• Duration of the project: 12-36 months

• Adherence to the specifications for structure and technical

details (e.g. page count) of the proposal submission

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 General Eligibility Criteria (2)

Consortium Composition
• Consortium composition of at least 3 independent eligible
organizations (legal entities), from at least 3 different AAL
Partner States participating in the Call for Proposals

• Consortium must include at least one eligible business

partner

• Consortium must include at least one eligible SME partner

which can be the business partner

• Consortium must include at least one eligible end-user

organization

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 Definition of end-users in
AAL Joint Programme
• - Primary end-user is the person who actually is using an AAL product or
service, a single individual, “the well-being person”. This group directly
benefits from AAL by increased quality of life.

• - Secondary end-users are persons or organisations directly being in

contact with a primary end-user, such as formal and informal care persons,
family members, friends, neighbours, care organisations and their
representatives. This group benefits from AAL directly when using AAL
products and services (at a primary end-user’s home or remote) and
indirectly when the care needs of primary end-users are reduced.

• - Tertiary end-users are such institutions and private or public

organisations that are not directly in contact with AAL products and
services, but who somehow contribute in organizing, paying or enabling
them. This group includes the public sector service organizers, social
security systems, insurance companies. Common to these is that their
benefit from AAL comes from increased efficiency and effectiveness which
result in saving expenses or by not having to increase expenses in the mid
and long term.

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 What organisations are
eligible?
Eligible for funding are only organisations that are explicitely
included in the national eligibility criteria (available from
the website: Information on national funding specifics).

Non eligible Organisations (not eligible for funding according

to national rules or not residing in any AAL partner state)
may be included in a project

- without funding from the AAL JP, but they

- cannot be crucial for the project‘s implementation and
they
- will not be taken into consideration when assessing the
project proposal against the eligibility criteria and project
characteristics as stated above.

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 Evaluation / selection
process
Evaluation performed by independent European experts
– criteria: relevance, scientific and technical quality,
quality of the consortium and efficiency of
implementation, potential impact (published in the
call text).

Selection of projects
Guided by the outcome of the evaluation process, the final
selection of projects for funding will be made using the
following principles:

– Maximizing the total quality of the project portfolio of the

Call
– Optimizing the usage of the available funding of the Call
- Ensuring thematic spread / avoiding directly overlapping
projects
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- Ensuring participation of project partners from as many AAL
 Funding decisions for the
selected AAL projects
Partners in successful project proposals receive the grant
agreement from their national Programme Management
Agencies

– Eligibility of an individual partner for funding depends on the

national eligibility rules – are published on the AAL Website
– Funding levels, conditions, reporting, eligible costs, audit
etc. according to the national rules
– Required complementary information to be submitted to the
national agency (e.g. financial information)
– Financial viability check by the national agency
– Streamlined process ensuring a common start date

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 Basic information on Call 2
• Date of publication: 11 February 2009
• Closure date: 5 May 2009, at 17:00, Central European Time (CET)
• Indicative total funding: 60.9 M€
– This amount includes a contribution of up to 23 M€ by the European
Commission.
• Consortia submit one common project proposal, with one partner acting as
coordinator.
• Project proposals will be evaluated centrally by independent European
experts.
• Selection of proposals will be based on the evaluation and other criteria
(see further information in the relevant chapter)
• Approval of proposal list selected for funding by the AAL General Assembly
in mid 2009
• Funding of individual project partners will be done according to the
respective national rules, reference to the national rules can be found at
www.aal-europe.eu/AAL-2009-2.
• Funding decisions by national funding institutions: Expected around
November 2009

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It is highly recommended to consult with
the AAL National Contact Persons
(NCP) prior to submission of a proposal
http://www.aal-europe.eu/aal-ncp.

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 The AAL FORUM
Vienna, 29.9. – 1.10.2009

An invitation to a proactive contribution to a

Communication Platform of the AAL Joint
Programme

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