Golden Opportunities with the Silver Economy
June 26, 2019
The launch of the Erasmus+ ‘Age Friendly Economy’ project took place at Lisburn Enterprise Centre 21st June 2019, attended by a host of age-friendly organisations and businesses hoping to seize the golden opportunities represented by the silver economy.
Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council led the European-funded project, worth €297,735 euros, which has delivered a highly successful age- friendly innovation business bootcamp and produced an array of useful resources which are now freely accessible online from an open platform.
Speaking at the launch, Chairman of the Council’s Development Committee, Alderman Allan Ewart MBE, said: “The council is aware that in the next 10 to 20 years we will have an increasing ageing population and that a range of interventions and projects will be required to ensure better supportive environments are in place to support this change. This project represents one of the first initiatives undertaken by the council to explore the opportunities that this demographic will bring to businesses in terms of service delivery and product development.”
The Erasmus+ ‘Age Friendly Economy’ project helps businesses to develop strategies to avail of emerging opportunities represented by the silver economy. The project developed four main outputs; a two-day innovation boot-camp for 15 SMEs that allowed business to further develop and expand their product/service ideas and to develop a commercialisation plan for market; a free online digital skills technology training course to assist with research and marketing; a work-based learning toolkit offering hints and tips on how to better improve research and development within the workplace and an online collaborative knowledge exchange platform to help businesses to connect to other SMEs throughout Europe who are making similar strides in embracing the Age Friendly Economy.
Also speaking at the launch, Mr Eddie Lynch, NI Commissioner for Older People added: “The number of older people living in Northern Ireland is set to increase rapidly over the coming decades. In fact, by 2041, 1 in 4 people living in Northern Ireland will be over the age of 65. Therefore, it’s vital that all economies are “age friendly” and that businesses and services meet the needs of an older population. This project is a great example as to how interventions can help to transform better environments for our older citizens.”
Member of the European Parliament, Diane Dodds, also attended the launch and said: “The Erasmus + Programme has been a key driver for co-operation, innovation and the exchange of good practice for many years and I am thrilled that Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council has been able to utilise the opportunities that the programme can bring to the local economy in Northern Ireland.”
All resources relating to the project are available at: www.agefriendlyeconomy.eu
Partner organisations included Ageing Lab from Jaén in Spain, Northern Chamber of Commerce in Szczecin, Poland, Louth County Council, European E-Learning Institute, Denmark and Feltech Software Innovations Ltd from Galway.