EIT Health event ‘Praça Vida+’

An event organised in the context of the European project Healthy Lifestyle Innovation Quarters for Cities and Citizens (HeaLIQs 4 Cities)

The Praça Vida+, was an event organised in the context of the European project Healthy Lifestyle Innovation Quarters for Cities and Citizens, that took place between 20-22 July at Alma Shopping, in Coimbra.

At Praça Vida+, citizens were encouraged to assume responsibility for their own decisions and were provided with the knowledge and tools that will allow them to make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing.

At Praça Vida+, citizens were invited to visit four different areas: the Healthy Lifestyle Assessment Area, the Health Literacy Area, the Technology and Wellbeing Area and the Praça Vida+ stage. Around 300 citizens participated in a healthy lifestyle assessment, using an instrument, the Healthy Lifestyle Assessment Toolkit that was created by a group of specialists from IPN and University of Coimbra.

More than 2000 citizens visited the other areas of the Praça, where they were able to watch and engage in debates and round tables on different topics related to health and wellbeing, discover innovative technologies from local star-tups and engage in co-creation and get information about entities, consortiums and projects in the areas of active and healthy ageing.

In November, in the context of the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS), Porto4Ageing, an EIP on AHA Reference site, will replicate the concept of Praça Vida+, in Porto, Portugal. And in 2019, in the context of the HeaLIQs4Cities project, another event will be organised at another reference site in Andalucia.

We plan to further expand this concept in Europe, through the Reference site Collaborative Network to leverage the interaction between two EU initiatives on healthy and active ageing, the EIT Health and the EIP on AHA. In fact, Praça Vida+ was highlighted in October´s edition of the Reference Site Collaborative Network newsletter.