Due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the event took place online over two days, and it gathered attendees with a wide array of professional backgrounds ranging from small businesses, research actors, including universities to end-user organizations thus representing many parts of the Active and assistive living community from several countries.

The first day was kicked off with a warm welcome from Alain Thielemans, the Vice-President of the AAL Association, and was continued with a session led by Marco Carulli, the AAL’s Programme Manager, focusing on presenting this year’s Call topic ‘Advancing Inclusive Health and Care Solutions for Ageing Well in the New Decade’, which aims to cover three  areas: the support to inclusive health and care systems; the innovation of ecosystems; and the accessibility of digital solutions.

Moreover, to provide the context for the timeliness of the Call topic, a special introduction focusing on  healthy ageing and digital transformation in the light of the Decade of Healthy Ageing was provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) representative, Dr. Vânia de la Fuente-Nuñez. The UN is launching the Decade of Healthy Ageing, a global participatory effort to stand for the rights of older people, which focus on changing the way we think about ageing; foster their abilities; deliver integrated care; provide long-term health care. She finally presented the Platform of the Decade of Healthy Ageing which will be launched later on in February (www.decadeofhealthyageing.org ).

The day continued with some useful tips from AAL project experiences, particularly highlighting the lessons-learnt during COVID-19 pandemic, including a presentation by Rik Wisselink (ZONMW), and two examples of AAL Projects, namely Caru Cares and Tessa, which were presented by Susanne Droscher and Wang Long Li respectively.

The first day was ended with sessions on AAL2Business tools for the AAL Project participants, as well as a broader view on the opportunities provided by the European Commission in the framework of Horizon 2020, as presented by Birgit Morlion of DG Connect.

The second day was dedicated to bringing together potential AAL project ideas and partners by a pitching session, where twenty two short pitches inspired the fellow attendees to connect with each other and connect the right idea with the potential team.