BALTSE@NIOR
BaltSe@nioR – Innovative solutions to support enterprises in the Baltic Sea Region in product development aimed at raising comfort and safety of seniors home living, co-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund) within the INTERREG Baltic Sea Region.
Project’s results
The project not only actively promotes the awareness and necessity of raising seniors’ comfort and level of safety but also at the same time it indicates companies the opportunities to enhance their capacity of innovation and competitiveness. The project will give BSR furniture companies inspiration and a common identity, it will enhance their knowledge and competences, and increase their capability to work in a transnational environment. It will deliver BSR furniture industry groundbreaking ICT tools, knowledge and innovative working methods supporting companies in new product development. Consequently the project will enhance their capacity of innovation to create smart products adapted to senior needs, making the companies more innovative and competitive.
Scope of the activity
The project will create synergies between the traditional furniture industry and innovative ICT solutions in the process of cross-sectorial specialization. It will focus on creative working methods for product design and developments in furniture safety, reliability, specific needs and preferences of seniors and the problems they face while using furniture. With broad competencies of leading BSR actors in the field of furniture, design, technology, ICT and robotics, economy and social sciences the project will transform the social challenge of aging nations into fascinating business opportunities for enterprises in the Baltic Sea Region.
BALTSE@NIOR 2.0
BaltSe@nioR 2.0 – Innovative solutions to support BSR in providing more senior – friendly public spaces due to increased capacity of BSR companies and public institutions
Silver BSR
Europe is the world’s oldest region with 23 out of 25 world’s oldest countries in terms of the age of the populations – 5 Baltic Sea Region nations are among 10 oldest in the world! Europe had 90 million of elderly aged 60+ in 2015 (18% of the population). The predictions indicate that the percentage of seniors in the European society will reach 24% in 2030. The number of seniors rises in all continents. By 2050, 2 billion worldwide will be 60+. As global aging accelerates we face huge social and economic challenge.
Open up for seniors
Companies are forced to modify their market offer and adjust it to the needs of senior customers. Also public space (like theatres, libraries, museums, restaurants, outdoor spaces) and public senior houses need to evolve. Modern public spaces should reduce ageism and be friendly to all. Being prepared for those changes is crucial for BSR actors both private and public ones. Thus to support them we will develop new knowledge on seniors needs concerning using furniture in the public spaces and the needs of public institutions being owners or managers of public spaces. It will help BSR companies to develop a better offer. We will prepare an e-book of success stories presenting aging-friendly public spaces across the BSR. We will initiate a networking group focused on designing for seniors, reinforced by trainings to build capacity in the Region. A durable change will be introduced by creation of model demo spaces in various localizations of BSR to show examples of senior–friendly public spaces. It would not only facilitate knowledge and experience sharing but also build capacities enabling to multiply improvements in other parts of the Region. With new guidelines on senior-friendly, smart public procurement we will open up discussion for the necessity to consider safety and aging-friendly requirements while producing and buying furniture for public spaces.
Smart, senior-friendly and planet centered design
We will show BSR furniture manufacturers how to develop interesting business ideas facing the aging challenge and responding public space requirements by using potential of BSR creative industries and cross-sectional specialization including implementation of ICT solutions to produce smart furniture. Due to the aging-friendly public spaces guide and model demo spaces we will give BSR municipalities motivating sources of knowledge and inspiration to change their environment into more accessible and thus helping them to provide better services for BSR citizens. We need to bear in mind that all our activities are interconnected and we hold enormous responsibility on how the BSR will look like in the future. To build the Region that we would like to grow old in we need to incorporate also environmental aspects and the advances of the newest technologies. Those two implemented together can help to provide the responsible and optimal solutions for facing the aging challenge. Nowadays we cannot build aging friendly spaces forgetting about our planet and unity of Europe. The educational aspect providing younger generations the knowledge and experiences the older one have can benefit for both. Thus we strongly promote intergenerational respect, universal design and UN Sustainable Development Goals.