TechnoMontréal and Laurea University of Applied Sciences sign a partnership agreement focusing on living labs for the well-being of the elderly

MONTRÉAL, QUÉBEC, February 13^th 2020 – Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Finland) and TechnoMontréal (Canada) are pleased to announce a cooperation agreement to initiate their collaboration which will be covering well-being innovations and best practices for the elderly population. In both Canada and Finland, the aging population is a major issue. Co-creation will help health and wellbeing players and create user-oriented solutions to the challenges faced by an aging-population.

Laurea UAS is a pioneer in terms of living labs approaches and this agreement is part of Laurea’s Co-Creation Orchestration (CCO) and Product Validation in Health (ProVaHealth) projects. CCO is building a model that helps businesses, cities, researchers and citizens work together to develop better services that promote well-being and health. ProVaHealth promotes transnational collaboration between Living Labs in the health industry. According to the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), “Living Labs are user-driven, open innovation ecosystems based on co-creation and the integration of research and innovation in the right communities and in the real world”. Co-creation, on the other hand, is a method whereby customers are connected to the value chain and participate in innovation.

TechnoMontréal is co-leading the living-lab ‘Bien vieillir chez soi’ (Aging well at home) which was initiated by a consortium of five businesses, four research centers and universities. The partnership with Laurea UAS will enable more transnational collaboration, share and align best practices and areas of focus, test and co-create solutions for the aging population and open new markets for Canadian and Finnish companies with a focus on well-being for the aging segment.

“Laurea is a pioneer in Living Lab development, and it’s great that our activities have sparked interest in Canada,” says Dr. Teemu Santonen from Laurea UAS.

“Technomontreal is very pleased to establish this channel of collaboration which will provide a great opportunity for all Quebec’s living labs on « Aging well at home » to exchange on best practices as well for companies to broaden their test environments.” stated François Borrelli CEO of TechnoMontréal.

For more information

Dr. Teemu Santonen

Principal lecturer

Teemu.santonen@laurea.fi

Asmae Skalli

Director – Marketing and communications

Asmae.skalli@technomontreal.com

About Laurea University of Applied Sciences

Laurea (www.laurea.fi/en) – the most appealing UAS in Finland – operates in the Greater Helsinki Region, which is the most innovative region in the European Union. In Laurea, health and well-being is approached through a holistic view of human beings and society including participation, functional ability, performance and empowerment of people. Laurea carries out and promotes multi-stakeholder driven health and well-being research, development and innovation in a number of Finnish and international networks.

About TechnoMontréal

TechnoMontréal acts as an innovation and technology catalyst. The Technology Cluster of Greater Montreal’s mission is to mobilize Montreal and Quebec’s technology ecosystem in order to implement strategies that stimulate the industry’s innovation, competitiveness, growth, and impact. Its action takes place through various programmes : Humanitek, Quebec’s technology think tank, Technopolys, Quebec’s Centre of Innovation in Retail (CQIC) and many more.