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Homes for 
Healthy Ageing 

Applications are now closed

What is the Homes for Healthy Ageing Programme?

Connected Places Catapult's Homes for Healthy Ageing Programme (HfHA) demonstrates the role that innovation, collaboration and a human-centred approach can play in accelerating the development of healthy, age-friendly homes and neighbourhoods. We've demonstrated the impact of this approach with testbeds in Sunderland and Northern Ireland, where partners have trialled solutions to overcome Cold and Damp Homes and Social isolation and Loneliness, respectively, with local SMEs. We are now pleased to announce our three new testbed locations Leeds, Essex, and Brighton.

About the Open Call 2022

Connected Places Catapult seeks to select and support 1 3 SMEs to join a 6-month testbed programme  by providing funding and deployment support, and creating the environment to develop your solution, demonstrate impact and build the case needed for scaling. 

To achieve this, Connected Places Catapult will work with 3 new location partners: Leeds City Council, Essex County Council, and University of Brighton and Brighton & Hove City Council. Our partners will play an active role in the SME selection, product validation and provide access to testing environment and internal expertise.

Connected Places Catapult will provide £200,000 of funding to support the 13 successful SMEs to trial innovative solutions across the three locations. Funds will be located based on the trial proposals submitted by applicants. 

SMEs will also benefit from deployment and business support tailored to their needs. This will include experiment design, user engagement, advice on data protection, impact assessment, investment readiness, pitch coaching, marketing strategy and other relevant support.

Key dates

27th Jul

Application Support Webinar

26th Aug

Application Deadline

12th - 23rd Sept

 Due Diligence 

26th Sept

Cohort Selection Announced

4th Oct

Welcome Day (Programme Live)

Jan - Feb (tbc)

Demo Day

31st Mar 

Programme ends

 

Programme challenges

Leeds Challenge -
Improving health and wellbeing through social connectedness

Leeds City Council wants to support older adults to connect more with their communities as a means of reducing social isolation promoting independence and supporting older adults to stay and live happily in the place they call home, for longer.

Feeling settled and connected to your local community increases the number of opportunities for social contact each day and provides more opportunities to create local meaningful relationships. How might we better connect older adults to their communities, local amenities and neighbours, in order to reduce social isolation and support them to remain independent for longer?

Keeping active can improve physical and mental health, whilst also increasing opportunities for social interaction and the creation of meaningful friendships. How might we support older adults to take part in more physical activity, in order to reduce social isolation and support them to remain independent for longer?

Better access to public transport increases independence, improves confidence, and supports healthy ageing by enabling older adults to access more opportunities to lead a fulfilling and social life. How might we make it easier for older adults to access public transport, in order to reduce social isolation and support them to remain independent longer?

Brighton & Hove Challenge - 
Helping unpaid carers

Unpaid carers are an integral and invaluable part of our society, and there is scope to support them further through innovations to help with some of the challenges they face, such as navigating complex support systems, having minimal free time for themselves, and accessing psychological support. 

Many carers struggle to navigate the complex support systems. They are often isolated and extremely busy caring for people who require individual management. How might we make it simpler for unpaid carers to navigate a complex support system to fulfil their caring role?

How might we offer unpaid carers opportunities to have more time for themselves? Caring for someone is often time intensive. As of 2011, approximately a third of carers in Brighton & Hove reported they spent more than twenty hours per week providing care (King, 2016). Solutions that would allow the person being cared for to live more independently, thus freeing up time for the carer would be beneficial. 

User research has highlighted that the high demands on unpaid carers can have a negative effect on their mental health and well-being. Being in a better place mentally will allow the unpaid careers to provide a better caring as well as allow them to appreciate the positive impact caring can have on their own lives. How might we provide unpaid careers access to better psychological support?

Essex Challenge - 
Improving efficiencies and communication in care provision

Essex County Council wants to trial innovative solutions in the Dengie region of Essex to improve independence and wellbeing for residents receiving social care support and work with local care providers to drive efficiencies in care delivery.

This challenge has been selected due to the known issues around rurality in the test area. User research with Dengie residents highlighted issues of social isolation influenced by some adults' inability to drive and the lack of public transport infrastructure, which has a detriment on vulnerable adults in the area. How might we better connect older adults with services that have been lost due to their inability to drive?

Through previous working with different sector organisations in the Dengie, there are inefficiencies in working wich could be resolved through a more joined-up approach. The improved relations between organisations in the Dengie has improved this area, but Essex County Council wishes to push this further using technology, or other solutions that could be tested, to improve the impact of care provided for the adult and/or care provider. How might we improve efficiency of care delivery in the Dengie area, providing benefits to both the provider and the person being cared for?

User research has highlighted repeatedly the issue of time spent by care providers having to complete large amounts of paperwork, eating into the time spent with adults during visits. How might we allow older adults and carers to better support each other in the collection and recording of relevant information needed for their records?

What's on offer to SMEs?

Funding

Amount based on trial proposals submitted by applicants

Testbed Support

Experiment design training and preparation, deployment support and evaluation

Engaging with end-users

Including trainings around safeguarding and carrying out research with people in real-world situations

Coaching and Mentoring

Including pitch coaching, marketing strategy, business and investment support

Solution Showcase

Demonstration Day to  industry and potential customers

Business Development

Business development opportunities and introduction to potential customers

Testbed expectations

You will be expected to be on site in the chosen location to engage with end-users and partners, deploy and provide support for your solution. Your proposal could include one or several of the following approaches:

  • Four to eight weeks trial and deployment, offering potential end-users to test your solution in their day-to-day context. 
  • Engagement activities with end-users such as focus groups, workshops, usability and testing. 
  • Showcase your solution in the Demo Day,  gathering insights and feedback from visitors such as end-users, potential clients or commissioners.

    • Am I eligible for this programme?

    • You must be an SME.
    • You must have registered a UK company address.
    • You must be willing to test in a real-world environment.
    • You must be able to address the challenge statements with your solution.
    • Preferably, you have an innovative solution at TRL 5 - 7 or equivalent for non-tech companies.

    Location partners

    Open Call Support Webinar

    We held an application support webinar on July 27th,  where we provided further information about the programme and challenges.

    Webinar Recording

    Point of contact

    If you have any questions about the application, please contact our team on homesforhealthyageing@cp.catapult.org.uk

    Contact Us