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acCURAte-Business (CURA-B)
acCURAte-Business
(CURA-B)
Start date: Dec 31, 2010,
End date: Dec 30, 2013
PROJECT
FINISHED
CURA-B aims at enabling the innovative power of entrepreneurs to strengthen services in health and social care markets. In this project, organisations in the area of economic development, providers of health and social care, as well as universities are working together to develop and test new business models, communicative interactions and strategies for a smooth and win-win implementation of innovative products and services on the social care market. With ageing populations in Europe and a shrinking work force, it is a challenge for society to provide high quality care and optimal living conditions for elderly people, at an affordable cost. Partners in this project realise that many innovative products, services and concepts have been developed in their respective regions, but few of these new inventions have found their way to the market of social care. A new market approach is therefore necessary in order to let everybody succeed in the business chain, from inventor to end-user. This project will therefore launch a call for solutions, in a crossborder joint effort. The aim being to find solutions in the field of "telecare" and "well being for the elderly" Achievements: Cura-B (acCurate-Business) was a three year eu erdF part-funded project through the interreg iv a 2 seas programme to promote entrepreneurship, innovation and the development of new cross-border initiatives for the development and deployment of innovative at-led (assistive technology) service solutions for the social and health care markets. the project brought together organisations from zeeland in the netherlands, from the west Flanders region (Belgium), from the nord Pas de Calais region (France) and from the east of england region (suffolk and Cambridgeshire). the objective for all the regions participating was to improve efficiency in their healthcare sectors by improving access for smes wishing to contribute innovative assistive technology products and services and to better meet patient/user needs and lower the cost of meeting those needs.Cura-B produced an understanding of the perspectives and needs of public sector providers and the obstacles facing smes to entering the at/Healthy ageing market, generated ideas for possible actions and in nine pilotprojects brought together the public sector, knowledge centres and smes to establish regional networks, trials of new technologies and services and introduce practical models of ‘Open innovation’. Historically, few of the many innovative products and services that have been developed in the regions have reached the markets for health and social care. a new approach was necessary in order to help all stakeholders win in the business value chain, from the sme inventor to end-user. these new approaches were designed to bridge the gap between sme producers and end users through helping smes to improve access to the market through new business models, communicative interactions and win-win implementation strategies. The conclusions ultimately pointed to the need to build robust integrated ecosystems of public and private organisations. cuRA-b delivered: empirical data on key challenges facing SMEs regarding market entry for at products in the 2 seas area; an online survey completed by 177 smes; 48 interviews of smes and 54 interviews of care providers; 17 stakeholder workshops across the 4 regions with 141 stakeholder participants. the project also undertook 9 activities and pilot projects including: On ‘network creation’ (east of england and zeeland); on ‘new Business models’ (west Flanders and nord Pas de Calais); on ‘triple Helix Co-Creation’ (west Flanders, zeeland and east of england). the project also created the Cura-B Best Practice ‘Business manual’ for smes in3 languages.