European cooperation offers new research perspectives

It all began at a dinner. Professor Thomas Bock from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Professor Henning Boje Andersen—DTU Management Engineering—had both attended the same EuroTech Universities workshop on ‘Personalised Healthcare’ with researchers from the four alliance universities. In the evening, they got to talking and soon discovered that they shared common interests.
While Thomas Bock is a former pilot and an expert in the field of automation, Henning Boje Andersen’s research focuses on the human factor in critical situations—including aviation and the healthcare sector. The two men were in complete agreement, and before the evening was over, they had decided to submit an EU project that would enable them to collaborate on developing technology to support healthy ageing.

The trend from their respective countries was the same as in the rest of Europe, where the healthcare sectoris facing major challenges. As people live longer, we are also seeing an increase in age-related diseases—including lifestyle and chronic diseases. At the same time, we know that if we can ‘catch’ old people on the way to becoming infirm, we can avoid diseases and hospitalization.

Found new colleagues
The two professors chose to avail themselves of the funding opportunities which the EuroTech Universities offer researchers wanting to work together and submit common EU applications. As they were not already collaborating with relevant researchers from the alliance’s two other universities—Technische Universiteit Eindhoven and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne—they searched relevant websites and asked colleagues for advice. Before long, they had assembled a team of researchers from all four universities.

The application—’Responsive Engagement of the Elderly Promoting Activity and Customized Healthcare’ (REACH)—achieved the highest possible evaluation score and was one of only two applications out of a total of 176 which was awarded a grant of EUR 6 million. The project is one of six supported by Horizon 2020 within sensor-based technological for healthy ageing.

Portable technology and e-health 
The project aims to develop solutions that make older people more self-reliant and reduce or postpone their dependency on extensive care. This is done by monitoring their physical activity and motivating them to perform activities in order to avoid loss of functionality. The project differs from similar projects by integrating and developing existing products and services in the field of e-health, rehabilitation, portable technology (wearables), and analysis of data.

The project team is currently testing Danish-developed interactive tiles among a group of elderly citizens in Lyngby, Denmark. The idea is for the participants to step on the alternating flashing tiles to ‘catch’ and turn off the lights. At the same time, activity bracelets record their activity throughout the day.

The expected positive change in functional capacity among the participants is then offset against a control group. The results will be compared with other parallel projects at the three other universities. When the project is completed in early 2020, the findings will benefit older people throughout Europe.

Successful partnerships
The project is an example of successful collaboration within the EuroTech alliance, where researchers work strategically together in several focus areas, with special focus on health and bioengineering, smart mobility, data science, and entrepreneurship and innovation.

Another example is the EuroTech COFUND which—with more than EUR 11 million—funds the appointment of 80 fellows to EuroTech postdoc programmes within the alliance’s focus areas for a period of two years. The programme provides the opportunity to conduct research at two different EuroTech universities, and access to different research environments. This enables DTU to recruit international research talents and secure new research partnerships with the EuroTech universities.

The EuroTech University Alliance’s office in Brussels helps researchers to submit joint EU applications and makes European politicians aware of the value and the necessity of focusing on technical-scientific research and development.