Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media says: 

"There is no reason for older people in Europe to miss out on the benefits of new technologies. The solutions and services resulting from this programme will help them to remain active in society as well as staying socially connected and independent for a longer time," said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media.

Objectives of the Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme

The objective of the AAL Joint Programme is to enhance the quality of life of older people and strengthen the industrial base in Europe through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The motivation of the new funding activity is in the demographic change and ageing in Europe, which implies not only challenges but also opportunities for the citizens, the social and healthcare systems as well as industry and the European market. The concept of Ambient Assisted Living is understood as

• to extend the time people can live in their preferred environment by increasing their autonomy, self-confidence and mobility,
• to support maintaining health and functional capability of the elderly individuals,
• to promote a better and healthier lifestyle for individuals at risk,
• to enhance the security, to prevent social isolation and to support maintaining the multifunctional network around the individual,
• to support carers, families and care organisations,
• to increase the efficiency and productivity of used resources in the ageing societies.

Programme Implementation

Main activity under the AAL Joint Programme is the funding of R&D projects in the AAL domain that result from regularly published calls for proposals.

This funding activity is commonly implemented by the AAL Association and its members that are national funding organisations in actual 20 European Member States (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom) and 3 Associated States: Israel, Norway and Switzerland [Switzerland still subject of formal accession].

The European Commission is not part of the implementation structures but contribute with a substantial financial support that is granted on the basis of article 169 of the EC treaty.

Funding principles under the AAL Joint Programme

The AAL Joint Programme is a programme implemented by funding authorities of several European countries. Thus, the AAL JP is a member-state driven R&D programme and not part of the European Framework programmes for RTD.

The AAL member organisations - all national funding authorities in their countries - have agreed on two principles:

1) The nationally committed funding is reserved for project partners of "their" respective national funding authority.

2) National funding rules will be applied i.e. an Austrian partner will be administratively managed by the Austrian funding agency, a Danish by the respective Danish agency and so on.

Only a minimum set of rules are set on the central level and these will be published with each call. Among them is the criterion that at minimum organisations from three AAL Partner States must be involved in one proposal.

The finally granted subsidy for project partners consist partially of national funds and European funds. The administration of the latter, the European co-funding, is the one of the most important tasks of the AAL Association. The association will pay the European co-funding on request by the national funding authorities that forward the amounts to the project partners that are administered by them. The AAL Association will never transfer any funds directly to accounts of project partners.

Duration

The AAL Joint Programme is initially set up for a duration from 2008 to 2013. The programme´s planned total budget is 700 M€, of which approx. 50% is public funding - from the AAL Partner States and the European Commission - and approx. 50% is private funding from participating private organisations (e.g. enterprises).

The public funding consists of contributions of the national programmes of the AAL Partner States (this funding is only granted to the successful project partners residing in the respective Partner State) and that of the European Community. The EC financial contribution amounts to a maximum of 150 M€ for the duration of the AAL Joint Programme.