European innovation partnership on active and healthy ageing: how is the EU connecting the dots between smart innovation and ageing boom

Europe and many other countries in the world are currently facing increasingly complex and systemic challenges. Ageing of the population is one of the most pertinent. In order to mitigate this relentless challenge and also turn it into an opportunity, the EU proposed within its Europe 2020 strategy, an innovative model of European Innovation Partnerships (EIP), first pioneered in a partnership on active and healthy ageing. This pilot, if successful, will help increase the healthy lifespan of EU citizens by 2 years by 2020, while contributing to smarter and more cost-efficient use of innovation. Drawing on the theories of 'ancillary innovation' this paper tries to ascertain the potential and added value of this EIP model as a tool for smart innovation. This paper argues that by offering political leadership, advocacy and 'ambassadorial' role across different sectors and at different levels, the EIP concept can help scale up and replicate successful practices and initiatives, and make demand driven innovation happen. This paper will conclude by illustrating how the EIP model of innovation is capable of connecting efficiently the dots between health innovation and needs of ageing populations and can also be a replicable model for other challenges.