This report showcases how AAL-funded projects continue to generate value years, often decades, after their initial development – a fascinating journey from innovation to legacy. 

It shifts the focus from immediate project outputs to long-term trajectories of impact. Through detailed case studies, ranging from market successes like ROSETTA and 2PCS to research-driven legacies such as AALuis, it shines a light on the many fascinating ways research goes from the lab, through testing and into the real world. 

Many of the featured innovations took five to 10 years to mature, demonstrating that this real-world adoption into health and care systems depends so much on investment, iterative development, and collaborative organisation 

The report also emphasises the critical role of partnerships and ecosystems. Projects that maintained strong collaborations, particularly with care providers and end users, were far more likely to achieve lasting outcomes, whether through commercialisation, follow-on research, or system-level change. 

Importantly, the report does not shy away from challenges. It identifies persistent barriers such as fragmented funding and reimbursement systems, regulatory complexity and limited scalability, factors that often determine whether promising innovations succeed or not. Yet even where commercialisation was not achieved, projects contributed valuable knowledge, methodologies, and design principles that continue to shape the active ageing reseaarch agenda today. 

The report concludes with a compelling message: impact in ageing and care innovation is multidimensional and is not only based on market success – social value, technological advancement and ecosystem development are also important markers of success.