74 European regions have been awarded the title of Reference Sites of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing for their commitment to excellence in investing and scaling up innovative digital solutions for active and healthy ageing. The Reference Sites range from Oulu, Finland, to Heraklion-Crete, Greece and from Andalusia, Spain to Olomouc, Czech Republic. Taken together they commit to investing more than €4 billion in deployment and scaling up digital innovation for active and healthy ageing, which is expected to benefit over 5 million people in the next 3 years.

Importantly all selected Reference Sites share a “whole system approach” to innovation by bringing together regional or local authorities, integrated care organisations, industry, SMEs and research and innovation organisations, to jointly implement a comprehensive innovation strategy for active and healthy ageing.

COCIR welcomes this initiative that recognises the commitment of these pioneer Regions to scaling-up innovative solutions for active and healthy ageing. We are confident that these best practices will inspire other regions to follow a similar path towards digital health innovation. 

More info here.