OST awards Age Innovation Prize
Rapperswil-Jona - OST Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences has awarded the Age Innovation Prize 2024. The university from the Swiss canton of St. Gallen worked in collaboration with Switzerland Innovation Park East and EY Switzerland. The prize recognized three projects making sustainable improvements to the lives of older people with prize money of 15,000 Swiss francs each.
The Institute for Ageing Research (IAF) at OST Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences has awarded this year's Age Innovation Prize in collaboration with Switzerland Innovation Park East and the audit and consulting specialist EYSwitzerland. The prize, worth 15,000 Swiss francs for each winning project, was awarded to three innovative solutions designed to improve the lives of older people, according to a statement.
Among the award-winning projects is FlexAssist, a spring-supported seating aid that helps older people sit down and stand up on public transport. It was developed by Jacqueline Keller, Lukas Mendes and Luc Schweizer from Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and Gian Teufen from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH).
Zurich-based HR ConScience, a startup company from the University of Zurich (UZH), won the prize for its Silver Bridge platform, which offers an online self-assessment questionnaire that older people can fill in to receive options for re-entering the labour market. “Returning to work promotes independence, social integration and as a result, quality of life for older people,” Lea Rutishauser and Anja Feierabend from HR ConScience are quoted as saying.
The third prize winner was SIGMA-beSerious, a project enabling older people who have home care to train their cognitive skills while having fun. This can counteract significant decline, according to the statement. “Its impact on the quality of life of senior citizens is enormous,” Sara Levati, SIGMA-beSerious project manager and senior lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), is quoted as saying.
Switzerland Innovation Park East will offer the winners support in the form of consulting or a workshop worth 3,000 Swiss francs. EY Switzerland is also offering coaching worth 5,000 Swiss francs, while a co-creation workshop worth 7,500 Swiss francs is being offered by the IAF. In 2025, the next edition of the Age Innovation Prize will open for applications across Switzerland. ce/ww