As a result of the Extended 3rd call for Reference Sites 2019 launched in October 2019, 26 regional and local organisations have been awarded “Reference Site” status, increasing the total number of Reference Sites beyond 100! BELIT is participating in two partnerships: City of Kraljevo reference location along with Health Center and Center for Social Work, and Belgrade Reference site together with Belgrade Institute for Public Health.
These organisations have demonstrated the existence of comprehensive strategies to advance innovation and to understand and address the challenges of delivering health and care services to the ageing population. They successfully bring together a wide range of stakeholders based on a “Quadruple Helix” model that includes representatives from industry, civil society, academia and government authorities at a regional and local level. These collaborations drive structural change far beyond the scope any one particular organisation could achieve on its own, helping to create an environment for other regions across Europe to learn, transfer and adapt knowledge to local realities, with regional, social and economic development as the long-term objective.
The Reference Site status has been granted to those organisations who have shown excellence in the development, adoption and scaling up of innovative practices for active and healthy ageing. This work should also be aligned with the strategic objectives of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) and the relevant new strategic developments including the Transformation of Health and Care in the Digital Single Market and work carried out through the Horizon 2020 WE4AHA CSA, particularly in the 3 horizontal initiatives, such as the Blueprint and the Innovation to Market (I2M) plan and MAFEIP.
However, this is only the beginning. The EIP on AHA provides a framework for continuous improvement and the involvement of new relevant stakeholders to enable any Reference Site to maintain and further improve its status. The process for becoming or making progress as a Reference Site incorporates an Improvement Tool which Reference Sites can use to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement, as well as develop an implementation plan. This will allow Reference Sites to continually challenge and benchmark themselves to ensure they are at the forefront in strategy and policy development and therefore contributing to the economic growth in their region and across Europe.
Related action groups:
A1 Adherence to prescription, A2 Falls prevention, A3 Lifespan Health Promotion & Prevention of Age Related Frailty and Disease, B3 Integrated care, C2 Independent living solutions, D4 Age friendly environments
Relevance to partnership:
Active ageing and independent living, Care and cure, Horizontal issues and framework conditions, Prevention, screening and early diagnosis
