Projects

DIPAR

Digital Infrastructure for Robust and Scalable PatientMonitoring in Pandemic Response Situations

The municipalities in Agder were early to offer digital follow-up of patients with symptoms of Covid-19 infection from home. They expanded an existing solution that is in use for digital follow-up of residents with chronic illness. Patients with symptoms can feel safe at home and the burden on the health service can be reduced, and health personnel who are in quarantine can work from home.

The research project DIPAR will support the health service's evaluation of how this solution has worked for users. By involving both patients and healthcare professionals, we will also contribute to improvements and further development of solutions and services. The goal is to use the capabilities of digital tools to be prepared for the next wave of infection or pandemics. New types of patient-generated data and new sensor technologies coupled with artificial intelligence can contribute to less labor-intensive and more accurate monitoring of disease progression, which can be useful even when we do not have a pandemic situation.

• Project owner / leader: UiA
• Project funding from: The Research Council of Norway
• Contact person: Margunn Aanestad
• Project duration: 2020-2022

InnArbeid

Demand-driven innovation for the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in working life through the use of technology

The inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in the workplace is limited. It is challenging to find, secure and keep suitable jobs. The majority go directly on to disability income after finishing high school. The InnArbeid project investigates how to improve this transition from school and into a working life.

The aim is to develop services and technology that enable young people with intellectual disabilities to make use of their abilities in the workplace. InnArbeid will also facilitate the transition between high school and working life by assisting in developing and positioning their potential for work.

We have proposed an Action Design Research approach which includes user-need mapping, co-creation, evaluation and implementation through iterative processes whereby users participate in all the stages of development. The method and results will challenge current practices and regulations for education, employment, municipal services and NAV (The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration).

User involvement in every project phase will contribute to the innovation of appropriate and applicable solutions as well as providing an anchoring in the region, thus strengthening the possibilities for realization and further implementation. A business model will be developed for the realization of the innovations.

• Project owner / leader: UiA
• Project funding from: The Research Council of Norway
• Contact person: Elin Thygesen
• Project duration: 2017-2021
• Website: https://innarbeid.uia.no/about-the-project2/ 

I2I

From isolation to inclusion

Across the NSR many people are experiencing social isolation and/or loneliness. This is a multifaceted problem and finding a solution requires action from multiple agencies for its successful alleviation. The public sector is struggling to address such a complex problem. I2I will focus on innovation in service delivery (including utilising new technology, e.g. serious gaming, apps, chatbots, VR/AR) through bringing organisations together and co-creating solutions with the target groups.

Therefore, the overall objective in I2I is to enhance innovation in social service delivery to improve social inclusion and counteract loneliness in NSR communities and neighbourhoods.

The NSR regions involved will increase the capacity of public authorities to develop innovative services and provide them with new tools and solutions in order to improve social inclusion and tackle loneliness. It aims to do this by making existing services more integrated and improving cross-sector collaboration using a quadruple helix user-centred approach working with service-/co-design methods.

Transnational cooperation enhances both efficiency and promotes broader thinking to stimulate innovation. It provides the testing ground for innovative community-based interventions and tools, creating more effective services for citizens while raising awareness of the issue in the NSR and increasing the innovation capacity of the public sector in regions around the Northsea to deal with social isolation.

• Project owner / leader: UiA
• Project funding from: Interreg North Sea Region
• Contact person: Ragni Macqueen Leifson
• Project duration:: 2020 -2022
• Web site: https://northsearegion.eu/i2i/
• Film: From Isolation to Inclusion

Agder som mønsterregion innen e-helse

The project aims to further develop Agder as a region within e-health, based on an already exposed position nationally and internationally. This will lead to very good development conditions for e-health products and projects. Such an exposed position strengthens all parties involved:

1. Users (citizens) receive better health services both within and outside the health care system.
2. The business community has a functioning ecosystem both technologically and in relation to competence to develop new adapted products and services that are easy to use.
3. The health service with municipal services and services at the hospital as well as the doctors get better integrated solutions that strengthen collaboration, division of labor and the development of new modern services.
4. The university gets access to data, lab and expertise to conduct future-oriented research in a vibrant region that develops dynamically.

The project will develop competence, create meeting places, establish basic infrastructure for integration and testing and create visibility of e-health locally, nationally, and internationally.

 AAUKF Annual Report 2019

• Project owner / leader: UiA
• Project funding from: AAUKF
• Contact person: Ragni Macqueen Leifson
• Project duration: 2019 - 2023