HoCare2.0 at the finish line
For more than 3 years 11 partners from 6 European countries have tried to boost knowledge and interest in the co-creation method in the area of homecare. Now the HoCare2.0 project has approached its end and it is time to wrap up and reflect.
Having in mind the ever increasing importance of the Silver economy and the lack of acceptable technology-based innovative solutions for homecare, partners in Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Germany, Czech republic and Italy engaged in a mutual co-operation to present the co-creation method as suitable and beneficial to tackle issues arising from the fact that the European population is aging and number of carers is insufficient.
What is actually co-creation? In simple words, it is a way to develop products and services with involvement of all relevant stakeholders, above all end-users from early-on. The SME or Service provider thus learns about the users´needs and their feedback on the developed solution throughout the whole development process.
The project aimed to share knowledge and expertise about the method and also to create networks including representatives of the Quadruple-helix, meaning SMEs, Public service providers, Academia and research and end-users. Thus the Co-creation Labs were established in each participating territory to increase knowledge and interest in co-creation and participate in the project activities.
As co-creation is a rather complex process, the project aimed to provide SMEs and Public service providers with methodological support on how to apply the method in the development process of their solutions. Eventually, two Tools have been released - the SME tool and the Policy Tool. More than 600 representatives from SMEs and Public service providers have been trained during the project on how to use the Tools and implement co-creation.
To test the co-creation method as outlined in the Tools, 13 SMEs and 7 Public service providers participated in Pilots where they developed homecare products and services with engagement of the end-users. Many learnings have been drawn from these Pilots which are summarized in two Pilot studies - the SME Pilot study and the Public services Pilots study. These include an overall description of the Pilot process, as well as information about each Pilot and also key learnings in general. Information about the Pilots in a briefer way can be seen in the eFactsheets, and also the Pilot Infographics.
All mentioned outputs can be found at https://www.interreg-central.eu/Content.Node/HoCare2.0/Outputs.html.
