“Our intention was to offer innovation-oriented companies a practical environment to test new ideas together with the target group during the (further) development phase,” explains project manager Michael Pichler of Human.technology Styria GmbH. “And I am very pleased that Opus Novo, an HTS member company, is now leading the way with the first project.”
It is of particular importance for the start-up company Opus Novo GmbH to get to know and understand the needs of its target group(s) better. The focus here is on future technological concepts, including on the subject of fall prevention.
In cooperation with the ESTHER LAB and the Albert Schweitzer Institute for Geriatrics and Gerontology, a research-based concept study on these issues is now being conducted. Of particular importance is the collaborative development with the primary target groups – family caregivers and those requiring care in the home setting.
The official starting signal for the joint project will be given on October 1, 2022. The aim is to jointly develop derivations for future products and business models on the basis of the researched study results and to promote the increase in competence within the Opus Novo team.
The project is supported by the Innovation Check of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG).
“For us as a company, the Living Lab represents an extremely innovative opportunity to actively incorporate the experiences of affected groups into the process of our future product development. This allows us to promote the sustainable development of our product and business models,” says Ing. Andreas Frankl, B.Sc., Managing Director of Opus Novo GmbH.
"Our motivation behind the work in the ESTHER Lab is that we want to create products and services together with the developers that are useful in everyday care and nursing. However, in order to integrate seniors and their care networks well into research and innovation work, empathy and understanding of their living environments are necessary," adds Kerstin Löffler, contact person at GGZ for the ESTHER LAB.