Part of the work programme of the Awen Institute is to run ideas labs and workshops, which will be used to drive lateral thinking and radical approaches to address research challenges.

Idea labs are intended to generate a variety of outcomes, ranging from the foundations of single large research project, to several smaller projects, feasibility studies, networking and dissemination activities, or be the precursor to developing large, competitive funding proposals.

An Ideas Lab event was held on 14^th October 2020, with representatives from the Awen Institute and Computational Foundry. The theme of the Ideas Lab was:

“Beyond Zoom – How can forms of ICT/ Technology support engagement and health and wellbeing for older adults during the current crisis and beyond?”

This Ideas Lab was used to scope out, identify and develop areas of mutual interest around the title topic; drawing out key thematic areas of interest for the development of research collaborations.

Some of the questions we were interested in exploring were:

• What high/low tech solutions are there to ensure the maintenance of health, wellbeing and social connectivity?
• How can we learn/capture and enable good practice through technology?
• How can we extend and sustain that going forward?
• How can we think about technology on a community level to enable the development of age friendly communities, or smart neighbourhoods?

During the Ideas Lab, workshops were held to discuss the above questions and from these, three Research Development Groups were formed to develop ideas in relation to project development with a view to applying for research and project development funding.

We were invited by Cherish DE to apply for seed corn funding for the projects (up to £10k).

Applications were submitted from three projects and a Dragon’s Den Escalator Pitch Event was held by Cherish DE on Friday 11^th December 2020. Two of the three projects were successful:

• Side by Side/Ochr wrth Ochr
• Adjust Tech, Accessible Technology (AT/AT)

Work will commence on these projects in early January 2021.