HoCare: International workshop in Funchal

Europe’s population is growing older, leading us into many social challenges which those changes are bringing. In the future there will be higher absolute numbers of elderly people, a larger share of elderly and longer healthy life expectancies. International Thematic Workshop on home care organized on 27th January 2017 in Funchal (Madeira) offered many opportunities to exchange experiences and good practices from the field of innovative solutions for home care. More than 100 participants attended the event which was organized by Business Development Institute of the Autonomous Region of Madeira (IDERAM).

The workshop was part of European project “HoCare” which deals with the issues of ageing population and is focusing on innovative solutions for home care. Partners from Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Hungary, and Czech Republic attended the event bringing with them also the relevant stakeholders from the field of home care. Current situation regarding home care research and innovation support and good practices from participating countries were presented at the workshop. Within 3 interactive working groups participants were discussing possibilities for transferability of projects and management and strategic focus of Opetrrational programmes. The focus was especially on generation of innovation by addressing unmet needs identified by formal and informal providers of health care.

President of Business Development Institute of the Autonomous Region of Madeira Jorge Faria explained the benefits for cooperation in HoCare project. The project is led by Nicosia Development Agency from Cyprus. Director Eleftherios Loizou explained that the purpose of thematic workshops is to initiate learning processes between partners. There will be 27 good practices identified during the project which will be transferable to other regions.

HoCare project follows “quadruple-helix” approach which is an innovation cooperation model where users, businesses, research actors and public authorities cooperate in order to produce innovations. Eduardo Jesus, Regional Secretary of Economy, Tourism and Culture, agreed that aging of population is bringing opportunities for new businesses and development of innovative solution for home care and pointed out opportunities in business sector in this field in Madeira.

International thematic workshop on home care organized in Funchal brought many good practices from the field of innovative solutions for home care and exchange of knowledge and experiences among participants from different European regions. The next international thematic workshops will take place in Budapest (Hungary) in March 2017 and in Litija (Slovenia) in June 2017.