Ageing and Technology

Ageing in Place: Aligning Technology, Care and Policy to sustain a life of quality

On the initiative of the Class of the Technical Sciences (KTW), the KVAB organizes, in cooperation with the Young Academy and the KAGB, in 2026 a Thinker’s cycle which will focus on the use of technology to support the challenges associated with the ageing. Our health system, and indeed society more broadly, is under increasing pressure from a rapidly ageing population. The implications are not only clinical, but also economic, ethical and technological.

We need to ask, in a clear and pragmatic way: can existing technical solutions provide support for older people living independently, which solutions need to be developed, and how can we integrate these solutions into existing care pathways so that they enhance, rather than replace, human delivered healthcare? A key challenge is to design a healthcare system in which professional expertise, family support and technical solutions work together in a coherent, mutually reinforcing manner.

Ageing in Place: Aligning Technology, Care and Policy to sustain a life of quality.

This Thinker’s cycle is coordinated by Greet Keppens (member of KTW KVAB), Sabine Van Huffel (member of KNW KVAB), Jos Vander Sloten (member of KTW KVAB), Femke De Backere (member of the Young Academy) and Inez Dua (KVAB staff member), in close consultation with a broad steering group of Flemish academics and experts.

A central role goes to our Thinker Richard Reilly, Professor of Neural Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, who will actively participate in the program for a period of at least six months. Prof. Reilly will participate in the meetings and events, hold discussions with key stakeholders, and offer perspectives for future policy in Flanders during a closing symposium and in the final report.

Based on discussions within the core group and in consultation with the steering group, the topics that will be addressed include:

• How do we align data, infrastructure, and technology to sustain the physical and cognitive competencies of older people as they age? 
• How do we integrate housing, urban planning, and care delivery to truly enable ageing in place? 
• How do we move from fragmented pilots to a truly integrated ageing-in-place system? 
• If innovation is strong, why does adoption of health technology still fail in real-world care? 
• “No integration, no impact”—what will it take to make health data actually work? 
• How do we equip and incentivise caregivers to effectively integrate technology into care delivery, enhancing independent living and ageing-in-place while easing primary care demand? 
• How can we operationalise personalised, preventive care models through connected systems (not standalone devices) embedded in daily life? 
• How do we design privacy-preserving, trust-based data ecosystems that enable both individual care and also provide population-level health insights? 
• What system, funding, and governance mechanisms are required to transition from successful local pilots to region-wide, sustainable deployment?

The Thinker’s cycle will also integrate the overall socio-economic context and investigate how the points above may impact health care delivery in the future. Finally also opportunities for industry will be explored.

In order to bring the Thinker into contact with as many relevant actors as possible, two visit weeks will be organized on January 26-30, 2026 and on March 23-27, 2026.

SAVE-THE-DATE: September 29, 2026 – Final Symposium