TechSocialcare

✈️ Next stop: Athens!

Already next Tuesday, 6 October, the TechSocialcare consortium and project stakeholders will meet in person again for our 3rd Interregional Event. And this time, we’re expecting quite a crowd: 55 participants are already registered!

Over two days, we’ll compare progress on our policy instruments, share new good practices, work together in an interactive workshop and head out for study visits to Agios Savvas Hospital and Athens Nursing Home.

We’ll be sharing updates, photos and highlights directly from Athens, so stay tuned and follow along!

Next in our TechSocialcare partner series: the Industrial Systems Institute of Athena Research Center.

ISI brings strong expertise in ICT, advanced technologies and healthcare digitalisation. Its researchers work on intelligent systems, monitoring tools and other solutions that can improve care in practice.

In TechSocialcare, ISI helps connect technical research with policy. Together with the Greek Ministry of Health, it looks at how new technologies can be used safely, reliably and on a larger scale.

Its role is especially valuable because the team understands both sides: what technology can offer and what public services need before they can actually use it.

Industrial Systems Institute

TechSocialcare was on stage in Prague last week.

At the conference Modern Approaches in Remote Care and Rehabilitation Medicine, Vít Janovský from UCEEB České vysoké učení technické v Praze presented how standards can help make the introduction of assistive technologies safer and more effective in social and healthcare services.

The event brought together experts from medicine, rehabilitation and technology, with topics ranging from telemedicine and telerehabilitation to AI, cybersecurity and assistive technologies.

It was also a great opportunity to introduce TechSocialcare and show why better rules, clearer requirements and practical standards matter if new technologies are to move from promising ideas into everyday care.

Next in our TechSocialcare partner series: the Municipality of Agnone.

Agnone brings the local perspective to the project. It works closely with a wider network of municipalities and knows what it takes to turn regional and European policies into something that actually works in small towns and rural areas.

The municipality has experience in health and social services, community engagement, digital literacy and European projects. In TechSocialcare, it helps make sure that new standards and recommendations are realistic for local services, not only for large institutions.

Agnone is also exploring how assistive technologies and remote support can strengthen home care, support caregivers and help people stay independent for longer.

Comune di Agnone

Next in our TechSocialcare partner series: Riga Technical University

RTU brings a research-based view to the project. Its role is to help partners understand which solutions really work and which can be transferred to other regions.

The team looks beyond first impressions and collects comparable data from real care environments. One of its key areas is indoor environmental quality and energy efficiency in social and healthcare facilities.

By combining measurements with feedback from people using the spaces, RTU helps show whether a solution makes a real difference in practice.

This evidence also supports better standards and gives decision-makers something solid to work with, not just another promising idea on paper.

RTU - Rīgas Tehniskā universitāte

Next in our TechSocialcare partner series: Vidzeme Planning Region

Vidzeme is Latvia’s largest planning region by area, but also one of the least densely populated. In practice, that means access to health and social services is often shaped by distance.

The region already has experience with community-based support through projects such as Vidzeme includes, which brought municipalities and service providers together to improve support for people with disabilities.

In TechSocialcare, Vidzeme is looking at how ICT and assistive technologies can make services easier to reach across a large rural area. It also helps bring useful ideas from other European regions into local practice and into the Vidzeme Development Programme.

Its perspective is clear: innovation should work just as well outside cities as it does inside them.

Vidzemes plānošanas reģions

Would you trust an emergency button that cannot tell you it has stopped working?

For many assistive technologies, simply being switched on is not enough. A device may have a low battery, lose connectivity or develop a sensor fault without the user noticing.

That is why one of the aspects we are discussing in TechSocialcare is a regular self-test function.

The idea is simple: the technology should be able to check its own key functions and clearly alert the user or care staff when something is wrong.

For devices used for safety, monitoring or emergency support, this can make a huge difference. A solution should not only work when tested on day one. It should also help us know that it is still working when someone actually needs it.

So should automatic self-testing become a minimum requirement for certain assistive technologies?

Next in our TechSocialcare partner series: Napoca Porolissum Local Action Group

The organisation works with rural and mountainous communities in Romania, where distance, ageing and limited access to social and emergency services are everyday challenges.

Its strength is a bottom-up approach. Napoca Porolissum brings municipalities, care providers, civil society and local businesses together to turn local needs into practical projects.

In TechSocialcare, it is looking at how LEADER and ESF+ funding can better support assistive technologies, staff training and cooperation between different services.

It also brings an important reality check to the project: standards must work not only for large institutions, but also for smaller communities with fewer resources.

Asociatia GAL Napoca Porolissum

Next in our TechSocialcare partner series: the Malopolska Region.

Malopolska has been working on active and healthy ageing for years, with a focus on helping older people stay safe, independent and connected.

The region already has practical experience through initiatives such as Malopolska Tele-Angel, which uses safety bracelets, remote monitoring and individual support.

In TechSocialcare, Malopolska is looking at what should come next: clearer technical requirements for telecare services and better rules for how these solutions are planned, selected and introduced.

The aim is simple: make sure technology supports people in everyday life, instead of becoming another complicated system around them.

Athens is next!

On 6–7 October 2026, TechSocialcare partners and stakeholders will meet in person for our third Interregional Event.

We will look at how our policy instruments are changing, share new good practices and work together in an interactive workshop on one key question:

Could this solution actually work in another region?

We will also visit Agios Savvas Hospital and Athens Nursing Home to see local approaches to care in practice.

Interested in joining us? The event is also open to stakeholders working in social care, healthcare, assistive technologies, digitalisation or public policy.

More details:
https://www.interregeurope.eu/techsocialcare/news-and-events/events/interregional-event-3-athens #