Belgian Ageing Studies (BAS)

At a glance:

• Faculty: Psychology and Educational Sciences
• 19 researchers
• Main areas of expertise:
  • Translation of fundamental research into applied valorisation
  • Care innovation & social innovation
  • Enable User centered innovation
  • Participatory approaches

What are the needs of older people and how can robots play a role to improve their quality of life?

www.belgianageingstudies.be

A deep understanding in the needs of older people

Unraveling the conditions, opportunities and constraints of growing older, from a social, community perspective.

The research group Belgian Ageing Studies (BAS) concentrates her research on the psycho-social aspects of ageing. Under the authority of the Belgian municipalities, BAS has been conducting for over a decade the "Belgian Ageing Studies", acquiring truly unique insights in the lives of over 80.000 older people. In large parts thanks to this valuable data, BAS is especially known for its expertise

• in engaging older adults as central actors in research 
• in providing instruments to measure the living conditions and quality of life of older people
• in supporting the process of creating age-friendly communities
• and in promoting evidence-based policy-making processes at the local level.

Robots and ageing...a perfect match

The ageing population in Europe will present us with huge challenges. Robots can help by for example alleviating the workload for care workers or helping older people stay at home longer. 

In order to succesfully use Human Centered Robotic technology in this domain, we need to have a deep understanding of the needs and living environments of older people. The insights of the Belgian Ageing Studies in precisely those needs enable us to develop solutions which can directly improve the quality of life of older people, and thus eventually for all of us.

In het kort:

De Belgian Ageing studies hebben een uniek inzicht in de noden en leefomgeving van meer dan 80.000 Belgische ouderen. Deze inzicht kunnen nu vertaald worden naar robots die de levenskwaliteit van de ouderen verbeteren.