FEUROPEAN FUNDING FOR ALMOST 800 THOUSAND EUROS FOR FONDAZIONE BRUNO KESSLER AND TRENTINOSALUTE4.0

29 January 2020

VALUECARE" and "KRAKEN": two scientific projects to support aging and people's health

The projects funded by the European scientific program “Horizon 2020” in the ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and officially launched in December are two. The first is “VALUECARE” (Value-based methodology for integrated Care supported by ICT) a four-year project that has the aim of defining integrated care for seniors suffering from cognitive impairment, fragility and chronic conditions.

The second, “KRAKEN” (broKeRage And marKEt platform for persoNal data), involves ten European partners, including Fondazione Bruno Kessler, and intends to develop a reliable and secure platform that can help citizens manage their personal data in a transparent, responsible and confident manner.

Both projects are part of the EU innovation actions and therefore provide that research will result in the development of market-ready and highly usable tools and services.

For “VALUECARE” in particular, FBK, through TrentinoSalute4.0, will receive funding for € 368,125.00 and will actively participate in the study using the digital platform HORUS.AI, developed by researchers of the Foundation’s e-Health Unit, which offers support to patients through virtual coaching for well-being self-management. The consortium, made up of 17 partners from 8 EU-member countries, is coordinated by the Erasmus Universitair Medisch Centrum in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and was created to ensure full coverage of scientific, technological, clinical and social skills in order to maximize the chances of success.

Independent living and healthy aging have in fact become key challenges in Europe: Member States are witnessing a demographic imbalance, with an increase in the number of elderly people in the population. The “VALUECARE” project, which falls under the EU policies for the digital transformation in Health and Care, therefore aims to improve the quality of life of seniors and their families, but also the sustainability of health and social care systems in Europe. Officially launched in December 2019, “VALUECARE” will end on November 30, 2023 and has received a grant in the amount of € 5,776,376.25 from the EU.

For the next three years, the “KRAKEN” research program will leverage the skills of the researchers at Fondazione Bruno Kessler and TrentinoSalute4.0 to devise interactive systems that will help citizens acquire greater responsibility when managing their personal healthcare-related data and that will target diverse profiles (patients, healthcare professionals, etc.).

As part of “KRAKEN“, FBK will provide useful tools for the design of a user-centered platform, in order to identify requirements and usage scenarios, and tests to verify ease of use. The tool will be developed in the cloud (therefore it will allow remote access and use via the Internet) and will ensure that people can store, control and share their personal data in a totally safely manner thanks to emerging highly reliable technological models, in line with European and national regulations, and data protection techniques that exploit advanced cryptographic tools. “KRAKEN” will propose an innovative data marketplace approach, thanks to which citizens will have full control of their information, which will be protected from unauthorized access, including from the cloud provider. Each person can then decide whether, when, how and with whom to share their health data.

“KRAKEN” involves 10 European partners: the consortium will be coordinated by Atos Spain and the Italian partners are three: Infocert SpA, Lynkeus and FBK, with its e-Health Research Unit. The budget available to the Foundation to achieve the above results is €425,625.00 out of an EU funding of € 5,017,662.50.

Both projects started in December 2019 and the consortia are currently working on the definition of the requirements in view of the development of the respective solutions.