The European population is ageing rapidly, a demographic trend that is impacting economies and societies. The most significant change is a decrease in the proportion of the working population while the number of retired people increases. However, it is not solely about shrinking labour supply and greater pressure on the public budgets for health care and pensions.
The AAL2Business support action run by META Group concluded after three years, supporting 79 projects and 118 organizations in enhancing the quality of life of older people.
One of the greatest difficulties Europe already faces is providing high-quality care that is affordable and available for all citizens. Many countries have experienced staff shortages for many years already, which constantly increases the pressure on existing personnel. The pandemic has exacerbated this trend. According to Eurostat, the increase in the proportion of older people will increase the burden of dealing with chronic diseases, which already account for 70-80 % of all healthcare costs.
This will require a redistribution of resources as well as new organisational, governance, entrepreneurial, and service models for our welfare systems. So how can we transform our healthcare systems to withstand the challenges of today and tomorrow?
Helping innovators develop successful businesses
Innovation in medicine and healthcare is predicted to be a key growth area in the following years. But bringing real solutions to real problems to the market is not always a straightforward process for researchers and entrepreneurs.
AAL2Business is an initiative founded by the AAL Programme that aimed at addressing this issue. The support action has recently come to an end, after helping numerous European start-ups in their business development and commercialization challenges by offering a wide range of solutions and support actions at different stages of their life cycle.
The program provided two main types of support: Lean Startup Academy and Go-to-Market Launchpad.
The Lean Startup Academy was a 3-month course that gave the participants in the AAL programme the opportunity to increase their commercial traction and further their market success. The entrepreneurs were guided by a business coach to identify their target market, use the best channels to reach them, choose an effective value proposition, and validate their business model by testing their assumptions against the market. The Academy consisted of 3 face-to-face workshops and individual online coaching sessions of up to 8 hours each.
The Go-to-Market Launchpad was a 2-month course for knowledge-based start-up projects with a more solid commercialization strategy. It provided participants with specific training and coaching on how to present a business value proposition clearly and convincingly, as well as capture the attention of different types of potential investors or customers and business partners.
Read more about this successful project here.
