The benefits that technology can provide in terms of health and support for independent living are in many cases not enough to break the barriers that prevent older adults from accepting and embracing technology. This work proposes a hardware and software platform based on a smart mirror, which is equipped with a set of digital solutions whose main focus is to overcome older adults’ reluctance to use technology at home and wearable devices on the move. The system has been developed in the context of two use cases: the support of independent living for older individuals with neurodegenerative diseases and the promotion of physical rehabilitation activities at home. Aspects such as reliability, usability, consumption of computational resources, performance and accuracy of the proposed platform and digital solutions have been evaluated in the initial stages of the pilots within the SHAPES project, an EU-funded innovation action. It can be concluded that the SHAPES smart mirror has the potential to contribute as a technological breakthrough to overcome the barriers that prevent older adults from engaging in the use of assistive technologies.

As life expectancy continues to increase in most EU Member States, smart technologies can help enable older people to continue living at home, despite the challenges accompanying the ageing process. The Innovation Action (IA) SHAPES ‘Smart and Healthy Ageing through People Engaging in Supportive Systems’ funded by the EU under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement number 857159) attends to these topics to support active and healthy ageing and the wellbeing of older adults. This protocol article outlines the SHAPES project’s objectives and aims, methods, structure, and expected outcomes. SHAPES seeks to build, pilot, and deploy a large-scale, EU-standardised interoperable, and scalable open platform. The platform will facilitate the integration of a broad range of technological, organisational, clinical, educational, and social solutions. SHAPES emphasises that the home is much more than a house-space; it entails a sense of belonging, a place and a purpose in the community. SHAPES creates an ecosystem – a network of relevant users and stakeholders – who will work together to scale-up smart solutions. Furthermore, SHAPES will create a marketplace seeking to connect demand and supply across the home, health and care services. Finally, SHAPES will produce a set of recommendations to support key stakeholders seeking to integrate smart technologies in their care systems to mediate care delivery. Throughout, SHAPES adopts a multidisciplinary research approach to establish an empirical basis to guide the development of the platform. This includes long-term ethnographic research and a large-scale pan-European campaign to pilot the platform and its digital solutions within the context of seven distinct pilot themes. The project will thereby address the challenges of ageing societies in Europe and facilitate the integration of community-based health and social care. SHAPES will thus be a key driver for the transformation of healthcare and social care services across Europe.

People generally need more support as they grow older to maintain healthy and active lifestyles. Older people living with chronic conditions are particularly dependent on healthcare services. Yet, in an increasingly digital society, there is a danger that efforts to drive innovations in eHealth will neglect the needs of those who depend on healthcare the most—our ageing population. The SHAPES (Smart and Healthy Ageing through People Engaging in Supportive Systems) Innovation Action aims to create an open European digital platform that facilitates the provision of meaningful, holistic support to older people living independently. A pan-European pilot campaign will evaluate a catalogue of digital solutions hosted on the platform that have been specifically adapted for older people. ‘Medicines control and optimisation’ is one of seven themes being explored in the campaign and will investigate the impact of digital solutions that aim to optimise medicines use by way of fostering effective self-management, while facilitating timely intervention by clinicians based on remote monitoring and individualised risk assessments powered by artificial intelligence. If successful, the SHAPES Innovation Action will lead to a greater sense of self-sufficiency and empowerment in people living with chronic conditions as they grow older.

Background The common use of the traditional Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale in evaluating civil security technologies has revealed a significant problem: TRL, although a standard metric, is limited for complex innovations. It does not fully address risks and non-technical factors that are important for successful technological deployment. This creates a gap in assessment approaches, often referred to as the “Valley of Death” in innovation funding and technology transition. To address this, the MultiRATE Holistic Readiness Level (HRL) framework is introduced in this paper, aiming to provide a more comprehensive evaluation of civil security technology maturity. Methods Our method, developed within the EU-funded MultiRATE project, combines seven key readiness dimensions: TRL, Societal RL (SocRL), Security RL (SecRL), Legal, Privacy, and Ethics RL (LPERL), Integration RL (IRL), enhanced Commercialization RL (en-CRL), and Manufacturing RL (MRL), all adapted to the specifics of the security sector. Our approach, unlike the fragmented nature of existing individual readiness level assessments, provides a unified understanding of technology’s readiness, including an investment forecasting module to estimate the costs for maturity progression. Results The MultiRATE HRL framework and its components were evaluated through a structured validation process with an external network of experts, following the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM). This validation confirms the framework’s feasibility and practical use in providing a more accurate assessment of security technology maturity. Conclusions MultiRATE provides a common language for researchers, end-users, and funding bodies, helping to de-risk the innovation process and bridge the “Valley of Death”. The web-based MultiRATE HRL calculator is accessible at https://hrl.multiratehl.iti.gr.