The first Horizon Prize for Social Innovation to tackle the challenge of ageing populations

A few weeks ago we encouraged to to vote in the Social Innovation Horizon Prize: an innovative competition run by the European Commission in cooperation with the European Investment Bank Institute where a prize of €2 million was to be awarded to whoever can offer the best breakthrough that will help meet

A few weeks ago we encouraged to to vote in the Social Innovation Horizon Prize: an innovative competition run by the European Commission in cooperation with the European Investment Bank Institute where a prize of €2 million was to be awarded to whoever can offer the best breakthrough that will help meet a problem facing the society. But the particular problem was to be decided by popular vote.

Announced last week at ICT2015, the challenge of an ageing population has received the biggest support in an open, public vote and becomes the topic of the first Horizon Prize for Social Innovation!

Based on this result, the Commission, in cooperation with the European Investment Bank Institute, will launch in early 2016 a Horizon Prize that rewards the innovator or team who comes up with the best solution to address the challenges and opportunities of ageing and to improve the quality of life of senior citizens. Their breakthrough will receive €2 million from Horizon 2020, the EU’s research and innovation funding programme.

Ageing population affects all EU Member States and has an impact in all policy areas. By 2025 more than 20% of Europeans will be 65 or over, with a particularly rapid increase in numbers of over-80s. With many Living Labs already heavily active in this field the funding comes as a great opportunity to grow and extend Living Lab developped solutions for active ageing, potentially across the European region.

Read more about the challenge here and we will keep you updated when the call launches in 2016.