A longer life expectancy and a greater propensity to travel have gradually increased the importance of silver tourism, becoming a major opportunity for new jobs and growth. The increasing number of older travelers has resulted in a growing demand for tailor-made tourist services for senior people: services able to combine leisure activities and accommodation facilities with appropriate personal assistance. Recent developments in assisted living technologies offer important contributions in responding to these challenges.

‘Alhtour - Assisted Living technologies for the Health Tourism sector', is a European project financed by the Horizon 2020-Twinning Programme. It aims to step up and stimulate scientific excellence and increase capacity for innovation in technologies for independent living, to be applied to the health tourism industry.

In particular, the project will link the University of Lisbon with three internationally leading research Institutions through a knowledge transfer process, to prepare for the set-up of a ‘Health Tourism Living Lab' in the Lisbon area, identified as a key driver for territorial development.

This will be made possible by the multidisciplinary cooperation among the four participating partner universities and the continuous involvement of local stakeholders with the ultimate goal of providing concrete examples and demonstrations of how synergies between research excellence and different business sectors can promote innovation and socio-economic territorial development.The knowledge transfer involves two action phases:

Phase 1: Transfer of Research & Innovation capacity

This phase aims at enhancing University of Lisbon's R&I capacity through the following activities:

An initial workshop and onsite visits to relevant local Portuguese stakeholders to identify R&I gaps and needs.
Transnational study visits involving researchers from the University of Lisbon, to analyse different Living Labs and best practices in Belgium, Netherlands and Italy.
Academic symposiums to define common research agendas and a plan for systematic knowledge and innovation transfer, in the project's key areas.
Mutual transnational staff exchanges to guarantee the transfer process. Portuguese researchers will first work alongside their colleagues in Leuven, Maastricht and Macerata to gain deeper insight into their particular research area (job shadowing). Subsequently, researchers from these leading institutions will go to the University of Lisbon to assists their Portuguese colleagues in consolidating the knowledge acquired during job shadowing (cross-functional mentoring).

Phase 2: Transfer of research to the market

The second action phase will improve the capacity of the University of Lisbon to transfer research results towards the market. The aim is to strengthen cooperation between researchers and business representatives, to promote entrepreneurship, and to improve the ability of translating research into concrete products and services. This will be through:

Joint seminars to show successful cooperation experiences and good practices.
A joint summer school where PhD and graduate students of the University of Lisbon can learn how to identify promising business opportunities and develop them into a viable business plans.
A Venture Lab involving all the relevant actors in jointly designing and preparing the setting up of the Health Tourism Living Lab (care centers, hotel and accommodation structures, wellness centers, local authorities, companies providing assistive living/health technologies, local tourism bodies, etc.).