News Archive

"eSESH - Saving Energy in Social Housing with ICT" project proposal with SEN@ER participation submitted to the CIP programme

Bonn, 07 July 2009 - The proposal submitted is a CIP ICT PSP Pilot Type B proposal addressed to ICT PSP Objective identifier: 4.1: ICT for energy efficiency in social housing. The SEN@ER partner involvement includes the Regional Ministry of Infrastructure, Housing and Transport of Extremadura, Regional Ministry of Industry, Energy and Environment of Extremadura; Distribuidores de Energía Eléctrica from Extremadura, Spar- und Bauverein Solingen eG, Ingenieur- und Planungsgemeinschaft ENVI-GmbH and empirica, all three from NRW.
The project proposal addresses the need to reduce energy consumption of the residential sector in Europe by a very significant amount to meet overall emission reduction targets. Building on first generation services today providing feedback on energy consumption to social housing tenants, advanced Energy Awareness Services (EAS) will be provided delivering tenants with direct timely and comprehensible feedback on the impact of their energy behaviour on a full range of energy types, thereby enabling tenants to help us all save energy and themselves avoid fuel poverty.

"LOWCARBON - Low Carbon Knowledge Work: Exploiting the Potential of eWork and eCollaboration to Contribute to Energy Efficiency" project proposal with SEN@ER participation submitted to the IEE programme

Bonn, 07 July 2009 - This is a IEE Intelligent Energy Europe proposal addressed to the "Energy in transport" programme. SEN@ER partner involvement includes partners from different partner regions.
The project will spread know-how and good practice about how ICT-based forms of flexible work, namely telework (eWork) and virtual collaboration (eCollaboration, incl. virtual meetings), can be used to effectively decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by knowledge work, namely by commuting and business travel.
The online tools to be adopted from existing tools will include an online application for the self assessment of current eWork and eCollaboration implementations as to their ecological but also economic and social sustainability and provide further online learning material and guidance on how to improve work processes and work organisation.

SEN@ER newsletter No. 10 published: Updates on SEN@ER partner region projects and proposals

Bonn, 03 March 2009 - The 10th issue of the the newsletter has been published today. It provides the information in html format with links to further information an contacts. Amongst other - the latest version describes results and achievements from SEN@ER projects ad new proposals submitted. As always, the newsletter als refers to relevant events to come and reports about others which took place recently. The newsletter is available for download in the 'newsletter' section.

"Senior Enterprise" proposal submitted to Interreg IV-B NWE by SEN@ER network partners coordinated by the Mid-East Region Ireland

Bonn, 03 Octover 2008
The SEN@ER partner regions have successfully submitted a proposal on "Senior Enterprise" to the recent call for proposals under Interreg IV-B NWE. This proposal was successfully developed under the coordination of the Mid-East region Ireland together with 9 partners from 6 SEN@ER regions in 4 countries. The regions include North Rhine-Westphalia, Yorkshire and Humber, North West Region, North East Region, Gelderland and Lower Saxony.
The project objective is to increase the proportion of older people engaging with enterprise through different means:

Starting and Partnering
Acquiring and Investing
Innovating and Advising

The partners will develop a co-ordinated programme, which engages with a variety of players and stakeholders, will be tailored to specific regional requirements and tested through a variety of means in several regional contexts. The fully tested initiative will be transferable to other regions and ready to attract further funding.
"Senior Enterprise" one of 25 applications submitted to the recent call for proposals which are in total applying for a total of almost EUR 90 million of ERDF funds.

Contact: John Byrne: mera at eircom dot net or SenWiNet at empirica dot com

A new project of the SEN@ER network - "InCreaSe - Intercultural Creativity of Seniors: A Travelling European Academy"

Bonn, 30 September 2008 SEN@ER partner regions and those from the age-culture.net network have been successful with a proposal for a Grundtvig learning partnership under the coordination of the Institut für Bildung und Kultur e.V. from North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and involving partners from 8 countries. The project just had its kick-off meeting in Remscheid.
InCreaSe is a travelling training academy for cultural learning and participation of older people in Europe. During the two-year partnership the expert partners will meet in each others' countries to exchange models of good practice in different specialisms. These involve different ethnic groups and generations, 'keyworking', volunteering for culture, theatre and media work. The overall aim is to develop training modules for implementation at a yearly "European Summer School".

Contact: Almuth Fricke: fricke at ibk-kultur dot de

Start of a SEN@ER Initiative on "Minimum requirements for home-based services for older people"

Bonn, 1 September 2008 picture of a box The consumer organisation North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) supported by the Ministry of Health, Equalities, Care and Ageing of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia has developed quality criteria for home-based services. By way of a checklist an orientation is provided for potential customers as well as for the providers of these services. Service providers adhering to these quality profiles are encouraged and offered the possibility to sign in and through a voluntary self-commitment signal to potential customers that they are offering services of a high quality and standard.
Through this checklist and voluntary self-commitment a contribution to the improvement and provision of high-quality services for older people but also for any other citizen is provided.
At two meetings of the SEN@ER Special Interest Group "Ageing Well" on 19 June 2008 in Arnheim and 2 October 2008 in Bonn several of the SEN@ER member regions have agreed to try and develop and establish the same or a comparable model in their region and to further develop it to a SEN@ER product and service of the Special Interest Group "Ageing Well" and in parallel find ways of making it a truly European product and offer through cooperation with European level consumer associations.

Contact: SenWiNet at empirica dot com

8th issue of the SEN@ER newsletter published

Bonn, 30 June 2008. The newsletter contains again a lot of interesting information on relevant Silver Economy issues from all over the European Union and its regions. A special focus has been put on reports from the SEN@ER Special Interest Groups (SIGs) "Entrepreneurship 50+ / 60+", "Ageing Well" and "Culture and Ageing" and the project and proposal activities started by these groups. Interesting information on upcoming European funding opportunities and calls for proposals is provided to interested parties. The editorial of this issue was kindly written by John Byrne, Director Mid-East Region (Ireland).
The newsletter is available for download in the news section.

Special edition of the SEN@ER newsletter published on "Active Ageing of Migrant Elders across Europe"

Bonn, 29 April 2008. The seventh issue of the Silver Economy Newsletter has been published by the SEN@ER - Silver Economy Network of European Regions. It is a special edition on the topic of "Active Ageing of Migrant Elders across Europe" and constitutes a new European project. The plan is to follow the path of SEN@ER and to also make it a truly European activity of the regions. Interested parties are kindly invited to join in and make it a success and make it publicly known to potentially interested stakeholders they are aware of. The newsletter includes a call for contributions to two Good-Practice Competitions on Active Ageing and Integration of Migrant Elders. It provides the details on how to register for the 1st European Conference on "Minority Ethnic and Migrant Elders across Europe - from Challenges to Opportunities" in Bonn (Germany), 30 September - 2 October 2008 and includes an offer to join the European Research Network on "Minority Ethnic and Migrant Elders". Further information can be obtained here: http://www.aamee.eu/. The newsletter is available for download in the news section.

Large Success of the Third European Conference "Silver Economy in Europe 2007" in Seville with a good practice award for the Limousin region in France

The topic "Silver Economy in Europe" was addressed at the 3rd European Silver Economy conference which attracted around 500 participants from all over Europe.
Following the previous conferences in Bonn (North Rhine-Westphalia) and Maastricht (Limburg) the event was the third annual conference of a SEN@ER (Silver Economy Network of European Regions) partner region which - supported by the other network partner regions - which addressed important topics of ageing societies and the challenges and opportunities related to this. The approx. 50 presentations from all over Europe provided the participants with a very good and detailed overview of ongoing activities, innovative projects and practical examples of the Silver Economy. During the second conference day the award of the good practice competition "Silver Economy in Europe 2007" was handed over to an undertaking located in Limousin, one of the SEN@ER partner regions. It is called Pôle Domotique et Santé de Guéret St-Vaury' ('House automation and health of Guéret'). Guéret is the main city in Creuse, which is one out of three departments in Limousin. More information can be found on the conference website at http://www.silvereconomy2007.com/ .

6th issue of the SEN@ER newsletter published

Bonn, 3 January 2008. The newsletter contains again a lot of interesting information on relevant Silver Economy issues from all over the European Union and its regions. A special focus is on the recent 3rd European Silver Economy Conference, held on 15 and 16 November 2007 in Sevilla Spain (cf. above).
The editorial of this issue was kindly written by Irina Papancheva, former Deputy Mayor for "Health Care, Social Activities and Integration of People with Disabilities", Sofia Municipality (Bulgaria).
The newsletter is available for download in the news section.

Conference on "Older citizens with migration background - Challenge and opportunity"

Oberhausen, 04 Oct 2007. The Ministry of Intergenerational Affairs, Family, Women and Integration of North Rhine-Westphalia is organising a one-day conference on "Older citizens with migration background - Challenge and opportunity" (Ältere Menschen mit Zuwanderungsgeschichte - Herausforderung und Chance) to take place at the Ebertbad in Oberhausen on 22 November 2007. Conference language will be German

The conference programme can be downloaded from here:
conference programme.

Online registration is possible online via:
http://www.seniorenwirt.de or via phone at +49 209 1707138

http://www.seniorenwirt.de or via phone at +49 209 1707138

The North West Region in the UK

Düsseldorf/Manchester/Liverpool/Bonn, 30 August 2007. Another region from the UK has joined the SEN@ER network and has been warmly welcomed by the other partner regions. The North West Region is the fourth UK region to come into the network. Since its establishment in 2005, SEN@ER has grown continuously and now includes 17 European regions having a total population of nearly 69 million people, which is about 14% of the EU's population, covering an area of about 404,000 km², which is about 9.3% of the EU's area and producing a GDP of about 1,500,000,000,000 €, which is about 13.6% of the EU's GDP.

Read more about all regions on our region page...

5th issue of the SEN@ER newsletter published

Bonn, 13 June 2007. The newsletter contains again a lot of interesting information on relevant Silver Economy issues from all over the European Union and its regions. A special focus is on the upcoming 3rd European Silver Economy Conference, to be held on 15 and 16 November 2007 in Sevilla Spain (cf. above).

The editorial of this issue was kindly written by Tom Riordan, Chief Executive of Yorkshire Forward, the Regional Development Agency for Yorkshire & Humber, United Kingdom.

The newsletter is available for download in the news section...

3rd Silver Economy Conference Seville 2007 - Conference website online

Sevilla, 01 June 2007. The English website of the next Silver Economy Conference is up and running. Please visit

http://www.silvereconomy2007.com

for more information about this great event that will be held on the 15th and 16th November 2007 in Seville, Spain.

Age-friendly Cities - International Conference in Essen and Mülheim from 11 - 13 June 2007

Essen/Mülheim/Bonn, 31 May 2007. The main objective of the international conference is to establish and build a dialogue board for the regional partners of the WHO-project "Age Friendly Cities" (AFC). The conference will offer the participants a chance to exchange their experiences and best practice and to get into dialogue with partners from other regions of the WHO-Initiative.The main focal points of the conference are:

security and independence: housing and home based services
health (especially prevention and health promotion);
participation
culture and education in age.

Silver Economy 2006 first prize award for the telecourse "Senior and disabled accessible building and living"

The award was handed over at the 2nd European Silver Economy conference in Kerkrade (The Netherlands). The telecourse is a project of the North Rhine Westphalian Trade Federation of Employers (in the field of sanitation, heating and climate) and of the chamber of crafts of the city of Düsseldorf and their centre "Housing for Elders" (Handwerkszentrum "Wohnen im Alter"). It offers vocational training for employees working in the fields of sanitation, electricity and heating installation and it sensitizes them for the needs of older people. The telecourse comprises interdisciplinary contents such as medical science, architecture, sanitary engineering and marketing and it qualifies its graduates for taking actions to adopt homes and houses to the needs of older and handicapped people.

Some pictures of the price award, the ceremony and the certificate (pdf, 603 KB)

Presentations from the 2nd Silver Economy Conference available

Limburg/Kerkrade, 22 March 2007. The second European Silver Economy Conference took place in November 2006 in Kerkrade/Netherlands. More than 50 speakers from all over Europe and the rest of the world presented their views and visions of the economic potential of the demographic change. Now most of these presentation are available for download from the conference website.

Visit www.silvereconomy2006.nl to download the presentations...

The SEN@ER network continues to grow - Limousin has joined as the first region from France

Düsseldorf/Limoges/Bonn, 05 March 2007. After the SEN@ER network has grown by three more member regions recently, Limousin as the first French region also joined the network and has been warmly welcomed by the other partner regions. Since its establishment in 2005, the network has grown by 60% up until now.

The “Silver Economy” has arrived at the top of the European Policy Agenda

Brussels/Bonn/Düsseldorf 23 February 2007. With the resolution “Opportunities and challenges of demographic change in Europe” (6226/07) dated 22 February 2007” the Council of the European Union has defined a clear policy position and explicitly refers to the opportunities for Europe and its regions inherent in and offered by the “silver economy”.

One of the constituting principles of the European SEN@ER network has been to view the increased ageing of the population not only as a threat or challenge but as an opportunity to improve the competitiveness and innovative abilities of the European economy and to promote growth and employment. Already in 2005, Armin Laschet, Minister for the Generations, Family, Women and Integration in the SEN@ER lead region North Rhine-Westphalia made the point when stating that “the European Unions needs a European "Silver Economy" initiative to further improve the quality of life for older citizens and to reap the benefits of the demographic change in terms of economic growth, jobs, employment and competitiveness. This initiative should be developed by the Commission and eventually implemented at all regional levels.”

With the recent resolution of the Council of the European Union, Europe has done a big step towards the achievement of this goal. Read More

The full document (in English and German) can be downloaded here.

European Congress on "Demographic Change as Opportunity: The Economic Potential of the Elderly" on April 17-18, 2007 in Berlin

Brussels/Bonn/Düsseldorf 23 February 2007. Under the framework of the German EU Presidency, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and the European Commission will co-sponsor the European Congress "Demographic Change as Opportunity: The Economic Potential of the Elderly".

At the congress in the Berlin Congress Centre (bcc), well-known policy experts and specialists from the business, research, and private sectors will come together to discuss the challenges and opportunities of demographic change with high-level representatives of the EU Commission. The aim of the congress is to further pursue the European discourse about demographic changes. The special focus of the congress will be the economic power of senior citizens. Older people can make an important contribution to growth and economic development, not only with their know-how and voluntary commitments, but also with their buying power.

More information is available online at:
http://www.bmfsfj.de

The potential of growth - three more regions have joined the SEN@ER

Düsseldorf/Leeds/Sofia/Opole, 02 February 2007.

The last few months have seen the SEN@ER grow by three more member regions. In October 2006, the UK region of Yorkshire & Humber has come to our network. In January 2007, both Sofia in Bulgaria and the Polish Opolskie region joined, too. With Yorkshire & Humber there comes a third UK region into the network, Opolskie is the second Polish region and Sofia extends the network to the newest member state of the European Union.

Limburg 2006 - The 2nd European Silver Economy Conference was a full success

Kerkrade, 30 November 2006. The second Silver Economy Conference that took place this week in Kerkrade / NL has been a great success. It was organised by the SEN@ER region of Limburg and was again - after the first conference in 2005 - an inportant forum for discussion and exchange of news around the vibrant topic of the Silver Economy.

The SEN@ER network is growing

Hannover/Düsseldorf, 12 June 2006. On 12 June 2006 the minister of social affairs of Lower Saxony (Niedersachen), Mrs. Mechthild Ross-Luttmann officially signed the "Bonn Declaration for the Silver Economy" as part of a press conference in Hannover. Lower Saxony with its 8 million citizens has now become the 12th European SEN@ER network region, a network which was established under the leadership of NRW in 2005.

The official signature process was attended by the NRW generations minister Armin Laschet, who also represented the SEN@ER network. Minister Mechthild Ross-Luttmann emphasised that the intention now is to learn from European neighbours and to bring Lower Saxony's experiences in this area into the network.

You can find more information on the new SEN@ER member on our regions page...

Key Note Speech: SEN@ER - Stakeholder Dialogue and Cooperation for the Silver Generation

Bonn/Graz, 10 June 2006. Ingo Meyer from the European SEN@ER Secretariat has given a key note speech at the European conference on "Ageing & Disability: Disabled People are Ageing, Ageing People are Becoming Disabled" in Graz (AT) on 8 – 9 June 2006. Together with two other presentations it formed the conference's 4th session on the topic of "Stakeholder Cooperation & Service Development". The conference was held in the framework of the Austrian EU-Presidency in co-operation with major European networks of older people and people with disabilities.

The main purpose of the SEN@ER presentation was to introduce the network to a wider audience and to promote its major goal: seeing demographic change and population ageing not only as a threat but also as an opportunity for economic growth, jobs and employment and increased social inclusion.

The overall feedback from the audience and from various key actors in the European field of older people and people with disabilities was very positive. Many participants had to admit that they had never before seen this positive twist to the big threat of the demographic change. At the same time, the economic as well as the social potential of SEN@ER’s approach was welcomed.

Ingo Meyer’s presentation can be downloaded from here [PDF, 120KB].

More information on the conference can be found online at
http://www.ageing-and-disability.com/aad/index.php?&lang=en.

More information on the SEN@ER is available on this website

Two Calls for Partners

As part of the SEN@ER initiative the following calls for partners were launched:

"Age-culture.net - A European Network for Creative Ageing"
"European Centre of University Studies for Seniors in East-Westphalia-Lippe (ECUS)"

1. "Age-culture.net - A European Network for Creative Ageing".

This is a call initiated by the SEN@ER SIG "Culture & Ageing" which has been established in the end of last year by several of the SEN@ER partners under the responsibility of North Rhine-Westphalia. The call aims at widening the network by partners from further regions. The contact details of Age-culture.net are as follows:

Almuth Fricke and Gerda Sieben
Institute for Education and Culture
Küppelstein 34
42857 Remscheid, Germany
Phone 0049 2191 794 299
Fax 0049 2191 794 290
Mail: fricke@ibk-kultur.de
www.age-culture.net / www.ibk-kultur.de

2. "European Centre of University Studies for Seniors in East-Westphalia-Lippe (ECUS)".

ECUS is interested in Europe-wide cooperation and has issued a Call for Partners. ECUS has been founded as an innovative institution of education by regional partners. It is financed by work contributed by the partners and by fees paid by the students.
Scientific support for ECUS will be provided by the Faculty for Health Sciences (School of Public Healthe) of the University of Bielefeld.

The contact details are:
Europäisches Zentrum für Universitäre Studien der Senioren Ostwestfalen-Lippe (EZUS)
Zentrum für Innovation in der Gesundheitswirtschaft (ZIG)
Jahnplatz 5
33602 Bielefeld
Mrs Susanne Lübker
Dr. Dr. Paul Wolters
Tel.: 0049 (0) 5 21 - 32 98 60-16
Fax: 0049 (0) 5 21 - 32 98 60 - 49
Email: luebker@zig-owl.de / wolters@zig-owl.de

Euregional workshop: "Times of Societal Change – Active Ageing – Develop Joint Perspectives in the Euregio"

The workshop was held on 2 November 2005 in Aachen/Germany. It was opened by minister Armin Laschet from North Rhine-Westphalia and minister Dr. Martin Eurlings from the government of the province of Limburg. During the workshop, the network "Euregional Silver Economy" was founded and is now open to new members.

Further information on the workshop can be found here...

SIGs start work

Three Special Interest Groups (SIGs) on relevant Silver Economy issues have taken up their work by now. Further information about the SIGs on "Ageing Well", "Culture" and "Financial Services" can be obtained from here...

Economic resources of senior citizens: Regional economic and fiscal effects of promoting the senior citizens economy in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)

Bonn, 23 June 2005. This study of the Institut Arbeit und Technik (Institute for Work and Technology) and the RWI shows impressively the opportunities for economic development of the State and the municipalities that could be realised if, besides the present fields of priority for the promotion of the senior citizens economy, additional strategies were adopted to mobilise the potential for economic strength inherent in an ageing society.

Seniors could become one of the major pushes for significant parts of the economy. For North Rhine-Westphalia – the by far largest state of Germany with approx 18 million citizens where the regional state initiated a “Silver Economy” initiative – a recent calculation from the above study shows that a proactive response to the needs and interests of the elderly could result in a plus of about 100.000 new jobs by 2010. The state government’s tax revenue would increase by a total of +€ 1.2 billion until 2010, local governments would collect an additional € 800 million, and wages and salaries would rise by € 6.5 billion. Similar calculations for the whole Federal Republic of Germany expect more than 900.000 additional employees in the “Silver Economy” within the next two decades. There are no other sectors or businesses with a higher growth potential in the German economy.

The complete study can be downloaded from here...

English version [PDF, 518KB]

German version [PDF, 518KB]

French version [PDF, 560KB]

The European SEN@ER - Silver Economy Network of European Regions Secretariat was established and opened on 1 June 2005

Bonn, 1 June 2005. With the European SEN@ER Secretariat – which is financially supported by the Ministry for Health, Social Affairs, Women and Family of North Rhine-Westphalia - the successful operation of the SEN@ER Network which was founded at the Silver Economy in Europe conference 2005 in Bonn (Germany) is continued and now financially secured up until 2007. The SEN@ER Network is now provided with a European management structure and put on solid grounds. The Secretariat is located in Bonn (Germany) and run by empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH. empirica already successfully organised the first European Silver Economy Conference in February 2005.

Silver Economy Network of European Regions is growing - Next worksteps agreed upon at the fourth meeting on 14 April 2005 in Brussels

Bonn/Brussels, 19 May 2005. The SEN@ER Network (Silver Economy Network of European Regions) welcomed the eleventh partner region - Lower Silesia (Poland) - at its fourth meeting in Brussels. Lower Silesia is the first SEN@ER member from the new European Union member states. At the meeting also the next worksteps were agreed upon and a Special Interest Group (SIG) on "Ageing-well" established. This SIG will be co-ordinated by the partner region Gelderland (NL). Further SIG members include Extremadura (ES), Limburg (NL), Lower Silesia (PL), Mid-East Region (IRL) and North Rhine-Westphalia (DE). Also a SIG on "Culture" was established under the responsibility of North Rhine-Westphalia and Extremadura as a further member.

SEN@ER Secretariat · c/o empirica · Oxfordstraße 2 · D - 53111 Bonn · Fon: +49 228 985300 · Fax: +49 228 9853012 · E-Mail