Independence Matters: Home & Away

Three innovative small companies have each been awarded £100,000 to develop new services that aim to help older adults live independently for longer through adopting better approaches to food and nutrition.

The teams are using design to develop human-centred service solutions that help to ensure the independence of adults in later life, and which are ready to be scaled-up and rolled out to the commercial market.

The services awarded the funding are:

Casserole

Casserole is a unique food sharing network, bringing local communities together around delicious home-cooked food.

The team: FutureGov

League of Meals

League of Meals taps into older adults' knowledge about home-cooking and avoiding food waste through collaborative cooking sessions to explore creative ideas for using ingredients efficiently. League of Meals then share this content with the wider public via digital channels.

The team: Sidekick Studios

Meet 2 Eat

Meet 2 Eat is a new regional service for older adutls that teaches a range of domestic, nutrition and kitchen basics to those that need it most, in a social setting.

The team: VISION Culture CIC, Rodd Design

Jackie Marshall-Cyrus, the Technology Strategy Board’s Lead Specialist for Assisted Living, says: “Much of the current service provision around nutrition encourages older adults to rely on others. Rather than seeking to maintain their own skills and independence, it takes away the opportunity they have to continue to do what they can for themselves, or to address their changing nutritional needs and tastes. These three exciting service development projects will offer a way to reverse this, through providing good nutrition and good nutritional advice, enabling older adults to continue to interact with food in the way they wish to, and enhance social interaction.”

Mat Hunter, Design Council’s Chief Design Officer says: “These next-generation services will help us maintain our quality of life as we age. All three teams show how understanding real, human needs inspires better solutions and we believe that this design-led approach will encourage the wider economy to embrace this emerging business opportunity. We look forward to seeing these compelling concepts brought to life and to market.”

Assisted Living Innovation Platform

 

This challenge was run through the Technology Strategy Board’s Assisted Living Innovation Platform (ALIP). Its principal aim is to advance the technology to support independent living for people suffering from chronic conditions and the increasing number of older adults for the benefit of business and improved quality of life.

 

Find out more about the Assisted Living Innovation Platform on the Technology Strategy Board website

 

The awards are awarded through the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI).

 

Background

 

The ‘Independence Matters – Home and Away’ funding competition was launched in February 2011 and followed extensive research by the Design Council to identify key areas in which innovations could make the most difference in helping older people to live independently.

 

Nutrition and independent living are strongly linked and the ability to continue to prepare and eat food into older age as you always have done is a fundamental part of maintaining your sense of identity, quality of life and independence. Access to good nutrition not only ensures healthy living (warding off both obesity and malnutrition) but also, as eating is an inherently social activity, it helps to maintain emotional and mental well-being.