Policy and investment decisions affect a variety of social functions and physical structures that are important for peoples living conditions, such as health, accessibility, participation, security and trust. 

In the project, the cities of Göteborg and Borås, RISE, White Architects, Ekan Management and Mistra Urban Futures will further develop and test methods and processes for measuring and understanding the impacts and values of urban construction investments for sustainable development. 

Understanding the total value creation of urban development is important to motivate efforts and prioritize between initiatives and actions. The project will analyse governance and collaboration processes in the urban construction process and develop a framework for impact governance and a toolbox with valuation methods to further develop investment calculations.
The goal is to contribute to achieving the government goals for sustainable cities; green, healthy and safe cities with good living environments where people meet.

However, faster transformation is needed, and the knowledge of working methods needs to be used by many more. The project will therefore also gather other research and community-building actors in a knowledge cluster. The aim is to collect, systematise and disseminate research and experience of new ways of measuring and evaluating sustainable impact governance.

The population is aging

In Sweden over 20% are over 65 years.
In Japan it is already 30%.

Age related frailty is a serious threat to independent living and social participation of senior citizens. A main cause is lack of proper food intake, i.e. sufficient energy as well as nutrients, generally referred to as “anorexia of aging” as well as lack of exercise. This leads to malnutrition which in turn leads to weight loss, frailty and finally to nursing homes, hospitalization, disabilities or even death.

It is estimated that the care costs for malnutrition in Sweden alone are 9 billion SEK/year. Problems with impaired senses of taste and smell, difficulties swallowing as well as sociological factors, lack of exercise and depression are among the contributing factors. A further contributing factor, especially in Japan, is poor oral functions.

Outcomes of the project

An intervention program to prevent oral frailty (chewing problems) mainly for Japan
Japanese seniors meet twice per week for ten weeks to exercise, eat together and get information. This program was proven to considerably strengthen oral functions and general health status, and it has been implemented at community level in over 50 communities in Japan.

An intervention program to alleviate and reverse pre-frailty mainly in Sweden
Swedish seniors who had experienced balance problems or falls met twice per week for ten weeks to exercise, eat together and get information. One exercise was fall training by the Judo4Balance program and the other aimed at strength. The program was proven to increase balance, mobility and general health status.

New food for building oral strength
A “cam-cam-bento-box” was developed in Japan with chewy food to give oral strength.

New food for dysphagia management
Texture-modified food was developed using 3D-printing in Sweden to manage swallowing disorders.

An implemented and improved swallowing sensor
The non-invasive, AI-based sound sensor GOKURI was implemented in studies for determining swallowing disorders and improved to detect differences in food and beverages as well as for remote monitoring.

An implemented movement sensor to detect balance problems
An accelerometer and gyroscope based sensor was implemented to detect incipient balance problems in the intervention program.

Swallowing disorders, or dysphagia, affects 40% of the population 70+ due to factors such as degenerative diseases, side effects of medication or simply age-related impairment of physiological oropharyngeal function. The management is through thickened beverages and texture-modified foods. The increased viscosity of a beverage induces slower flow which allows sufficient time also for an age-impaired physiology to swallow safely. Another factor to avoid aspiration is to assure cohesivity of the bolus so it does not break up into droplets, which is achieved by thickening, i.e. increasing shear viscosity, but even more by increasing fluid elasticity.

Models of the human upper throat, the pharynx, where most problems of misdirected swallowing occurs, have been developed as a tool to develop foods which are easy and safe to swallow, and to study the effect of different types of swallowing disorders. Swallowing of two thickened fluids in the Gothenburg Throat Model. The left fluid is not sufficiently thickened to avoid aspiration.

The Gothenburg Throat Model can mimic all swallowing disorders of the pharynx and characterise the flow of a bolus in detail using manometry and ultrasonic velocity profiling. This means that a product developer can evaluate their fluid products or boluses of their solid food regarding flow behaviour during the most critical phase of the swallowing, the pharyngeal phase where aspiration (food going into the airways) may occur. 

A simplified, but mobile model has also been developed to be applied in food development labs. The model has the same geometry and settings but a simpler “mouth”.

Purpose

The aim of the project was for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region to strengthen their innovation capacity and their technological development through collaboration with researchers and other important players. Several SMEs developed their knowledge in interaction design, user experiences and user-centered development, and more companies buildt knowledge of and experience of innovation projects and of collaboration with researchers.

Challenge

Increased digitization in society and in working life means that more areas are using ICT, therefore investments in interaction design are needed in order for the innovations of the future to be competitive. A good understanding of the users, their driving forces and context is needed to develop well-functioning solutions. A design perspective on the interaction between people and new technology is central to the development of future applications and smart products.

Solution

Through a pre-study, the foundation was laid for how a successful project aimed at SMEs in the region should be organized. The project thus offers flexible forms of research collaboration and learning and with the possibility of different levels of participation, from innovation projects to workshops and seminars.

Effects                                                                                                 

The project contributes to sustainable growth in the regions, innovative SMEs, new collaborations between SMEs and researchers and new ideas and prototypes to further develop.

Aim and goal

The goals of the printed biosensor projects are the design, development and evaluation of printed biosensors for the fast reliable and cost-effective at-line monitoring of bioprocesses, both up- and downstream.

In the first project the ESR will develop electrochemical biosensors for the at-line monitoring of key components (e.g. lactate) of cultivation media.

In the second project the ESR will focus on down-stream detection of the products (e.g. antibodies).

Challenge

Development of sensor able to withstand working conditions (e.g. temperature and environment) and requirements (e.g. concentration of molecules to be detected) associated with monitoring in bioprocesses.

Demonstration that electrochemical low-cost biosensors could replace existing technologies.

Solution

Develop low-cost screen-printed sensors with tailored molecular recognition.

Explore the use of different polymeric coatings and combination of biomolecules to improve sensors stability and to tailor their analytical performance.

Effect

Biorapid project is expected to provide a variety of benefits at different level:

Improving the production of biopharmaceuticals by providing novel sensing tools for more punctual and cost-effective monitoring of the process and of the products.

Consolidating the positioning of the EU in the area of biopharmaceutical production.

Provide to the scientific community novel technical solutions and know-how in the area of bio-production and biopharmaceutical.

Provide the society and pharmaceutical industries with highly trained individuals.

Aim and goal

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the major enablers of the digital transformation trend Europe currently is facing. It represents the vision that every object and location in the physical world can become part of the Internet. SCOTT bundles the European key players from several industrial domains including building and home / smart infrastructure, automotive, aeronautics, rail, and health to make full potential of cross-domain synergies and to strengthen Europe’s position in the emerging technology field of secure IoT.

Challenge

Physical parts of the IoT such as sensors/actuators and wired communication are generally well developed and established. However, creating trust in wireless solutions and increasing their social acceptance is thus one of the major challenges to bring out the full potential of the IoT.

Solution

SCOTT provides comprehensive cost-efficient solutions of wireless, end-to-end secure, trustworthy connectivity and interoperability using a standardized multi-domain reference architecture, being fully compliant with ISO 29182 – Sensor Network Reference Architecture, which fosters reusability, scalability, and interoperability of SCOTT solutions.

RISE created an innovation initiative based on data-driven services to explore the use of telematics platforms and data for 3rd-parties. Several actors were involved including business innovation, software and platform engineering and analytics and keystone firms/OEM. The resulting cloud service for quantified connected passenger vehicles and integrated third/party authentication services for access management and control for access protection, were developed and tested to support the design of novel data-driven services.

Effect

Tangible results from all use cases will ultimately be shown to a broader public via more than 20 demonstrators all over Europe. Use Cases will be further substantiated by the development and utilization of nearly 50 technical building blocks for security/safety, distributed cloud integration, energy efficiency/autonomy of devices and reference architecture/implementations, which are all necessary to realize the SCOTT use cases and facilitate composability of systems as well as cross-domain sharing of trustable wireless technologies and services.