Five years of interdisciplinary research on ageing and technology: Outcomes of the Lower Saxony Research Network Design of Environments for Ageing (GAL) – An introduction to this Special Issue on Ageing and Technology

Abstract

This Special Issue of Informatics for Health and Social Care is presenting outcomes of the Lower Saxony Research Network Design of Environments for Ageing (abbreviated as GAL), probably one of the largest inter- and multidisciplinary research projects on aging and technology. In order to investigate and provide answers on whether new information and communication technologies can contribute to keeping, or even improving quality of life, health and self-sufficiency in ageing societies through new ways of living and new forms of care, GAL had been established as a five-year research project, running from 2008 to 2013. Ambient-assisted living technologies in personal and home environments were especially important. During the five years of research in GAL, more than seventy researchers from computer science, economics, engineering, geriatrics, gerontology, informatics, medicine, nursing science and rehabilitation pedagogy intensively collaborated in finding answers.

• Ageing societies
• ambient-assisted living
• assisted living facilities
• demographic change
• health-enabling technologies
• pervasive health care
• research
• smart homes

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Also on behalf of the other members of the GAL research network we want to acknowledge the support of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture for funding the GAL research network and thus giving us the opportunity for doing extensive inter- and multidisciplinary research in this field.

In addition many of the participating institutions also provided additional support for GAL, which also helped us to run this research network.

Last, but not the least, we want to acknowledge the contributions of the members of GAL’s scientific review committee, who also significantly shaped the GAL research network. The members of the scientific review committee were Andreas Kruse [Heidelberg, chair], Heinz Handels [Lübeck], Rolf Heinze [Bochum], Jochen Seitz [Ilmenau], Wolfgang von Renteln-Kruse [Hamburg], Cornel Sieber [Nürnberg] and Werner Vogel [Hofgeismar].

Notes

¹ The text of this section is taken from [2], where also further details can be found.