An Ageing Population

The background to the agenda is the increasing proportion of elderly people in the population, which presents both challenges and opportunities for society, business and entrepreneurship. The long-term vision is to establish a sustainable society for an aging population. The aim is to create and develop easily accessible goods, services and networks that are in line with the needs and demands of elderly people. These products should be capable of coping with the complex situation of the elderly and satisfy their personal needs. Elderly people are a large and heterogeneous group and in Sweden the majority of elderly people are healthy and live independent lives. But there are also those who are frail and sick and who are in considerable need of care and assistance. The work within the research agenda has been conducted on a multidisciplinary basis to identify new interactions. The goal was to establish collaboration through a series of meetings and workshops and where ideas and innovation chains with an embedded holistic approach could be created. This goal was achieved through four workshops with some 30 organisations. Smaller meetings were also held and collaboration took place with other agendas. Three priority areas have been identified: housing, nutrition and health. To achieve the vision, it is important to work with prevention by adopting an individual approach but from a holistic perspective. Simple, robust regulatory frameworks and structures should work to promote the independence of the individual. Welfare technology that adapts existing technology and makes it useful and accessible to the elderly would bring us closer to realising the vision. This can be achieved through collaboration