Smart and Healthy Ageing through People Engaging in Supportive Systems

Project Information

SHAPES

Grant agreement ID: 857159

DOI

10.3030/857159

Project closed

EC signature date 28 October 2019

Start date 1 November 2019

End date 31 December 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Health, demographic change and well-being

Total cost

€ 20 944 996,75

EU contribution

€ 18 732 468,25

Coordinated by

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH
Ireland

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SHAPES (Smart and Healthy Ageing through People Engaging in Supportive Systems)

Reporting period: 2022-11-01 to 2023-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Throughout Europe, the phenomenon of an ageing population living longer but with increased risk of chronic and potentially debilitating health conditions and reduced quality of life, requires the development of solutions that will allow EU citizens manage our lives so that we can remain active, healthy, productive, happy, and independent in our own home environments. As traditional communities and family structures become more dispersed, older individuals may face psychological and physical effects of isolation compounding the typical effects of ageing. The need to remain connected socially, but also to receive health and social care in a manner that respects our preferred way of living in dignity is an increasingly important issue.

The SHAPES project aims to create the first European open Ecosystem enabling the large-scale deployment of a broad range of digital technologies for supporting and extending healthy and independent living for such older individuals. SHAPES builds an interoperable platform integrating smart digital technologies to collect and analyse older individuals’ health, environmental and lifestyle information, identify their needs and provide personalised solutions that uphold the individuals’ data protection and trust.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

• WP1 began immediately with the submission of the project handbook and quality plan within the first 6 months. To date, 2 technical reviews have taken place with the project officer and external reviewers two action plans summarising the main work and results have been submitted. The projects advisory board has also been formed.
• A Digital Ethnography Methodology was designed in WP2 to combat the challenge of travel and physical meeting restrictions due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This toolkit includes a training manual, consent form, information sheet and a ‘guide’ of 250 suggestions for questions across eight core themes. The final versions of the SHAPES Use cases and personas were submitted to the EC.
• Between M1 and M12, important groundwork was carried out in WP3 to establish trends in health and care delivery in Europe (submission of D3.1) best practice examples of technology-enabled integrated care (submission of D3.2). The SHAPES user requirements were developed through 3 iterations of deliverables, the final one being submitted to the EC in April 2021.
• In WP4 has developed the initial architecture for the SHAPES Platform the principles of which include the following; Single sign-on (SSO) to all digital solutions registered to SHAPES, data authorisation managed by users and on Digital Solutions where data is stored, seamless integration of devices, services, platforms and applications, standard-independent interoperability w.r.t IoT data and medical information, future extendibility to additional medical standards and data models, advanced data analytics of data shared among diverse Digital Solutions, management of medical data over diverse Digital Solutions for same individual, GDPR-grade protection of private identifiable private data and optional sharing of capturing anonymised data sets for research purposes.
• In WP5 the technical partners began immediately with the compilation of information of the Digital Solutions and matching them to pilot themes in WP6. Mock ups have been completed for the majority of mature use cases. D5.2 was submitted detailing the base description of the Digital Solutions and their matching to specific use cases.
• WP6 kicked off with the development of an evaluation methodology that includes the technical evaluation as well as the evaluation of the general impact of SHAPES (submission of D6.1) which also included the Set up of the pilots plan. 25 use cases in total have been developed which include the Use case descriptions (including digital solutions included, pilot sites involved, pilot summary and subject profile). Data plans have also been completed. Several use case have initiated prototype testing and hands-on training. Minor delays have been caused due to the pandemic public health restrictions however mitigations have been successfully put in place and the WP is running well.
• WP8 began with establishing the Baseline for the Projects ethics (D8.2) and developing the SHAPES Data Management Plan (D8.13) provided. Ethical self-assessment were collected from each WP. The Initial SHAPES Ethical Framework (D8.4) has been provided. GDPR contents and requirement were provided as part of D8.4 and ethics and privacy risk assessment has begun. The first 18 months also saw the commencement of the regulatory frameworks review. The Data Protection Impact Assessments are underway with each pilot.
• WP9 is focused on building the SHAPES Ecosystem. This WP kicked off with the preparation of ecosystem activities, launching the first two SHAPES think tanks and completing the Initial activities regarding foresight and knowledge collection. The first open call was also launched and completed, inviting new innovative collaborators into the SHAPES Ecosystem.
• In WP10 development of the SHAPES dissemination plan was submitted on time. The main focus was on establishing visibility: set-up of an accessible project identity, website and social media. Connections were established with LSP projects in the EC Health and Care Cluster. 3 successful Dialogue workshops and awareness campaigns have been held. All workshops were held virtually. Each subsequent workshop has attracted more registrations.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

• Technical partners in the consortium developed rapid identification of COVID-19 response digital solutions that have been integrated into SHAPES. These solutions can aid with automatic disinfection, assistance in remote monitoring of patients, body temperature measurements and rapid contract tracing.

• The project has implemented open calls to integrate shorter projects into the consortium that involve novel technologies so that we can enrich the digital solution ecosystem in SHAPES. Successful SMEs will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities in the context of the SHAPES Platform and providing them with the opportunity to reach a European-wide market.

• An alternative approach to publicly disseminating ethnographic research for all SHAPES stakeholders to read was developed within the projects website. The aim of the webpage is to provide an insight into the lives of the older people involved in SHAPES, through easy-to-read accessible vignettes.

• An instructive manual on how to organise a successful virtual workshop was developed following the first dialogue workshop to assist organisations with organising engaging virtual workshops.

• A Digital Ethnography Methodology was designed to combat the challenge of travel and physical meeting restrictions due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The ethnographic toolkit was created to support researchers working in the different field sites. A benefit of a hybrid physical-digital methodology is that researchers can capture local detail and context whilst building trust and depth through a longitudinal relationship.

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