SHAPES

The SHAPES Project aims to create the first open European Ecosystem capable of guaranteeing the wide-scale implementation of a wide range of digital solutions that support older people to live autonomously and healthily for longer. SHAPES aims to build an open platform that will integrate intelligent digital solutions to collect and analyze information about the health, context, and lifestyles of older people, identifying their needs in order to develop customized solutions that ensure both data protection and people’s confidence in these solutions.

The SHAPES Project is an innovation action, financed by the European Union through Horizon 2020 and promoted by a consortium made up of 36 partners from 14 European countries, which include organizations from the academic community, civil society and also from the business community, and which is led by the University of Maynooth, Ireland.

In Portugal, SHAPES has the participation of two institutions: the University of Porto which is present through ICBAS, CINTESIS, and Porto4Ageing, and the University of Aveiro which is present through CINTESIS, DigiMedia, IEETA and GOVCOPP .

The SHAPES Project takes into consideration the advantages of digital solutions for health and care systems dedicated to older people, and for their caregivers and health and care professionals. The project is based on a multidisciplinary and participatory approach, which aims to study the interaction between digital solutions and their users, in different contexts of life and physical and psychological health conditions.

Indeed, SHAPES contemplates several research and innovation actions, which include: in-depth knowledge of the conditions, contexts, and lifestyles of older people; the organizational, structural, and sociotechnical analysis of health and care systems; the construction, adaptation, and adequacy of digital solutions, and their piloting with a view to transferring them to real-life contexts; the study of the economic impact of solutions and market conditions for their implementation and scalability; the definition and institutionalization of ethical and legal principles in the context of data protection; and the implementation of a European ecosystem of stakeholders in the areas of healthy, intelligent and participative aging.

It is worth noting the realization of a large scale pilot campaign, with seven different thematic areas, which will involve more than 2000 people from 10 European Union countries, 6 reference networks in innovation in the area of Active and Healthy Aging and hundreds of stakeholders.

The University of Porto is the leader of the pilot developed in the thematic area “Care for Older People with Neurodegenerative Diseases”, which aims to develop digital solutions that increase the independent (non-institutionalized) quality of life of people with neurodegenerative diseases, as well as the action and well-being of their informal caregivers.

The University of Aveiro, in turn, will implement, among other activities, a pilot project involving five European countries, with a view to the use of the StepMania® game by seniors, with the aim of promoting physical activity and physical exercise among this population with a view to adopting a healthier lifestyle.

The SHAPES Project is financed by the European Union, through the Horizon 2020 program (DT-TDS-01-2019 – Smart and healthy living at home).

20,944,318.75 €

n/d

Grant Agreement ID: 857159

01/11/2019 to 31/10/2023 (48 months)

At the University of Porto: Constança Paúl (Principal Investigator), Pedro Rocha, Renato Silva, Soraia Teles

At the University of Aveiro: Anabela Silva (Principal Investigator), Oscar Ribeiro

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/857159