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The European Social Network is a partner in this 42 month project ending in June 2026 led by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, funded by the EU's Interreg North Sea Region Programme.

The ACE project aims to tackle 2 main challenges: the growing need for home care, due to an ageing population and new demands; and overload of caregivers, due to shortages of personnel and high demand.

The main objective is to accelerate innovations in the home care ecosystem in the North Sea Region, by:

  • Developing and enhancing research and innovation capacities and the uptake of advanced technologies 
  • Developing skills for smart specialization, industrial transition, and entrepreneurship.

ACE will implement 3 interconnected project phases:

Phase 1 - ACE Defining the Future

  • Joint identification of the needs and technological opportunities for "Smart Home Care of the Future."
  • Identifying pressing home care demands in the North Sea Region, together with technologies that can tackle them (e.g., wearables, pill dispensers). To do so, stakeholders analyse the potential for innovation uptake (usability, cost, design) in a single, transnational report.

Phase 2: ACE Accelerating the Future 

  • Drive 30+ innovations closer to the "Smart Home Care of the Future" (trialling 7-8 or more) through the establishment of transnational connections and innovative prototyping in real home care environments.
  • These innovations contribute towards addressing the challenges co-identified in the Quadruple-helix Workshops.

Phase 3- ACE Adapting to the Future

  • Supporting care professionals to adapt to technology and implement good practices.
  • Define the 20+ critical adaptations that home care providers require to adopt innovations 
  • Promote procedures applicable across the North Sea Region, reducing differences in home care service.
  • Share the findings between policymakers in the North Sea Region.

ESN supports the engagement of municipalities/regions from the 7 countries in the North Sea Region and involve public and private care providers from the centre and north of Europe. 

In Phase 1, ESN will support the involvement of local policy makers from the North Sea Region to take part in Quadruple-Helix Workshops, to co-define the needs and solutions of the future.

In Phase 2, ESN will facilitate the piloting of innovations in these areas through the engagement of municipalities from the North Sea Region.

In Phase 3, ESN will support knowledge exchanges between care providers through exchange events organised during the lifetime of the project.

ESN will also facilitate the dissemination of the results of the project through our network of public authorities. 

In WP1 “ACE defining the future”, partners actively contributed to defining strategies to execute WP1 activities. Series of bi-weekly meetings were held for workshop guidelines, stakeholder mapping and campaign set up. In-person meetings helped to refine objectives, regional insights, and plans. In the first period, partners successfully established collaboration and synergy among work packages. The key achievement was the 1st quadruple helix workshop organised in Höganäs, setting basis for more workshops in SE,DK,NL,BE,FR.

A comprehensive communication package and creation of ACE's own visual and COMs identity proceeded forwards. The ACE website is set up as well as its LinkedIn profile with a couple of project-related articles online. Partners are mobilising their networks to inform them about ACE and a number of followers have already been attracted.

Key highlights related to COMs objective are the completed guidelines for ACE defining the future campaign and a framework for communication around the workshops.

In WP2 “ACE Accemerating the future”, partners worked actively in order to set up the Digital Care Ecosystem platform before the end of the year. WP leader BOM revised the work plan and timeline, hosting workshops in the partner meetings and initiating collaboration mainly between activity leaders. Key highlights are that partners participated in discussions to identify platform functions.

Partners prepare for communication objectives, outlining a strategy to boost stakeholder registration on the platform. The WP leader and activity leaders coordinated an input for campaign to attract stakeholders (aligned with A.1.1), connecting it to the wider strategy and necessary platform registrations. The focus of this strategy will be on targeting innovators and care providers.

In WP3 “ACE Adapting the future”, partners discussed adaptations and strategies for the Smart Home Care of the Future based on findings from partner meetings in Malmö (February 2023) and Aarhus (June 2023)and monthly discussions. The Activity and Output leaders were successfully named and granted responsibilities. The key proceedings are related to a system perspective connecting WP1 and WP2 to WP3. The WP3 activities stand further away in time but the planning started already, especially around effective gathering of critical adaptations.

Regarding communications, partners discussed strategies for effective communication in terms of the main WP3 target group, the care providers and the home care personnel. The further focus will be on attracting the target group to events, exploring ways to make them more appealing, including the possibility of organizing them alongside larger events. The Act 1.1 campaign will consider the

WP3 goals to address them early in the project and to ease the expected communications work in WP3.

For more information, contact José Iglesias at jose.iglesias@esn-eu.org