The European ‘Ambient Assisted Living' (AAL) programme was created to stimulate research and development into new technologies that support independent living. Often these projects are led by academic institutions and involve private sector organisations to develop new products and devices. A critical element of these funded projects is the engagement with end users to test and evaluate the devices being created.
The aim of the Blackwood Foundation is to place people, the end users of independent living products, at the heart of the development process. By utilising their experience and expertise we can improve existing devices and stimulate innovation for new technologies. We took up invitations to become the designated end user organisation in a number of projects so that we can support the engagement of people in the evaluation process.
Having been invited to join six different consortium bids the Blackwood Foundation selected three. The project bid process was thorough and time consuming but has led to three projects proposals being submitted. They include:
We will hear from the European assessment process in September and from the UK funding body by the end of December.
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