The Sudoe MOAI LABS project (2014-2020) is a finalist for the REGIOSTARS 2024 awards, in the category “A Social and Inclusive Europe”.
These awards will take place on 8 and 9 October in Brussels as part of #EURegionsWeek, the European Week of Regions and Cities.
In addition to the “final phase”, where the winners of this edition will be announced, the organizers have made possible the “public vote”, thanks to which citizens can vote for their favorite project until moments before the ceremony.
Learn more about MOAI LABS and its first Transnational Living Lab
The implementation of this project, which involved 9 entities from the south of Europe, achieved great results, including the creation of the first MOAI Transnational Living Lab.
Living Labs are spaces for experimentation where research is carried out, different players in the field of innovation are involved and the creation of new dynamics and procedures are encouraged.
The MOAI Transnational Living Lab is the “umbrella” under which the entire project has been developed and has been dedicated to multidisciplinary research, development and social innovation in the field of unwanted loneliness in the elderly.
For the implementation of the laboratory, the project worked with an innovative methodology based on a participatory approach bringing together five different Living Labs (INTRAS, LEITAT, UAVR, I2ML, MFL). It was a space where all the agents involved could participate, contributing with ideas and sharing experiences, with the aim of achieving pioneering solutions designed for all those who feel alone in the last phase of their lives.
This methodology has created the so-called “Experts by Experience” (older people who experience unwanted loneliness or are socially isolated) and the “Early Demand Groups” (private companies and public administrations that seek to offer innovative solutions to the challenge of loneliness). Both sectors, public and private, have collaborated together in the co-creation of innovative solutions combining technical-scientific knowledge and the lived experience of the elderly, which has achieved a great social impact and the implementation of public policies at the regional level.
Unwanted loneliness in the elderly is a difficult problem to detect, but thanks to MOAILABS it was also possible to work in order to have useful and scientifically contrasted information about this reality throughout the Sudoe territory. In this sense, MOAI LABS has followed a methodology to provide valid technological tools, such as the AHOA platform (www.actif.online) increasing the number of visits to this website designed for the elderly by five, or the implementation of the MOAI Roble App, a solution that has improved the scope of combating unwanted loneliness, promoting social participation and connection to the community, with the aim of helping older people improve their well-being and quality of life.
These new results to provide a solution to a common problem, such as unwanted loneliness in the elderly, were possible thanks to the methodology implemented by MOAI LABS within the framework of transnational cooperation.
We count on your vote for MOAI LABS
To vote, just enter the following link and learn about the finalist projects. Your vote for MOAI LABS will help to give visibility to the reality that many elderly people in Sudoe live and their struggle against unwanted loneliness.