Submit your proposal for one of the 150 stands available to showcase the latest findings in advanced research, technologies, new systems, innovation in services & business and ICT products just coming to market. Deadline: 7 June 2013 - 16.00.

The young ambassadors will contribute to the event in different roles: Session reporters will be following selected conference sessions and write summaries of the highlights, which will be published on the blog; Conference highlighters will follow the conference and report online; Exhibition watchers will highlight the most attractive exhibits; Social media managers will help to coordinate the information and content produced by different ambassadors. Deadline Wednesday 5th June 2013, 16:00 CET.

Do you have a specific topic to propose for discussion? Bid for a dedicated networking slot at the event! Propose a topic for a Horizon 2020-related networking session. Deadline: 10 May

Cross-border Digital Public Services: what's in it for citizens? For Industry? For Member States? Articles, interviews, video and info graphics to learn more about our Large Scale Pilot Projects: e-CODEX, SPOCS, STORK 2.0, epSOS, PEPPOL, the forthcoming eSENS, and the Connecting Europe Facility initiative...

The Carer+ consortium is currently finalising research that will lead to the creation of the Carer+ Digital Competence Framework that will provide care workers and caregivers with a reference tool that will help them assess their digital competence and plan their further development in an organised and outcome-oriented way. Using the framework, the caregiver will be able to tell what knowledge and skills he/she currently possesses, on what levels of mastery, and where best to aim further learning. Schools, teachers and trainers can make good use of the framework as well by structuring and facilitating their courses’ plans and objectives. It can also help employers to plan their staff’s professional development. The tool will be finalised in the first quarter of 2013 and published in a wiki environment in the Carer+ Portal for all interested stakeholders to use, review and comment.

The European Commission JRC-IPTS is conducting jointly with DG-CONNECT the MIREIA (Measuring the Impact of eInclusion Intermediary Actors) project which aims at better understanding the role of e-Inclusion intermediary actors and to create adequate instruments to facilitate the demonstration of their outcomes and their contribution to the achievement of European e-Inclusion policy goals. Within the framework of this research, Telecentre-Europe, commissioned by JRC-IPTS, is conducting an online survey that aims to provide a 'map' of eInclusion actors that operate in Europe, gathering and analysing relevant data and documentation that will enable us to illustrate the diverse typologies and role of key eInclusion intermediary organizations and the socio-economic impact of their activities at European level. This exercise and its outcomes will help the e-Inclusion sector leveraging its resources and would provide vital insights for policy makers to understand the importance of e-Inclusion organisations that are on the forefront of the digital inclusion and empowerment. In practical terms, e-Inclusion Intermediary organisations will have to answer a short online survey, open until 28th February 2013. The survey is available in 15 European languages.

The European Commission is opening the Invitation for Commitment to the Action Plans of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing. It is done in order to further strengthen and extend the critical mass working to transform the delivery of care to ageing citizens, building upon the initial progress and momentum generated by the Partnership. The deadline for submissions has been extended to 28 February 2013.

On 15 January 2013 the European Commission held an information day for Objectives 3.1 - 3.3, ICT for Health, Ageing Well and Inclusion, of Call 7 of the CIP ICT PSP. Information given on the day is posted on this page. Please note the clarification on intellectual property rights in the thematic network for the sustainability of EU wide info-structure and collaborative governance (objective 3.3.c).

December 3 was the International day of people with disabilities. Let's do something that makes a difference. You are public procurers, managers of private websites, web developers ? Update your knowledge on the accessibility business case in our accessibility cost-benefit study. If you need further evidence, we developed a tool to calculate the cost of making your site accessible yourself. It is straightforward and simple. Just fill in the questionnaire and you know what it takes to help get every European Digital.

Over 100 million EU citizens would find it easier to use online public services to look for a job, register a car, submit a tax declaration and apply for a passport or driving license thanks to new rules proposed today by the European Commission on the International Day of People with Disability. The Commission's proposal for a Directive on the accessibility of public sector bodies' websites would introduce mandatory EU standardised accessibility features, from the end of 2015, for 12 types of websites. Mandatory accessibility would apply to essential government services like social security and health related services, job searches, university applications and issuing of personal documents and certificates. The proposed new rules would also clarify what web accessibility means (technical specs, methodology for assessment, reporting, bottom up testing), and governments would be encouraged to apply the rules across all services, not only the mandatory list.

The Commission uses a number of groups to help drive and inform its e-Inclusion agenda.

The Goldenworkers Project, funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme, aims to structure a beyond state-of-the-art research agenda for ICT and employment for older workers. As it is now entering the final phases of its journey, the project is currently carrying out a survey meant to evaluate the Roadmap developed so far in order to provide an overview of ageing at work in the future and how information and communication technology will shape this.

This Competition is launched by the European Commission in memory of Diogo Vasconcelos. The aim is to find the best social innovation solutions to help people move towards work or into new types of work. Over 25 million Europeans are out of work. On top of that, many people are stuck in low-paid jobs or sense that they have few opportunities on the job market – sometimes because of their gender, age or a handicap. This Competition invites any European to come up with new solutions to create new opportunities for work, and for better work. Not doing anything about unemployment and under-employment is not just cruel and wasteful; the corrosive effects of high unemployment will cast a shadow over the economy and our society for years to come. The Competition, launched on 1 October 2012 with as deadline 21 December 2012, includes a strong mentoring component for shortlisted entries. Eventually the three best proposals (indicative maximum) will each be awarded with a prize of 20,000 euros in May 2013. A second prize competition will be launched in 2014.

Currently the mobile technologies in general as well as sensors and other devices enable collecting and communicating a vast amount of data of individuals. This multi-parametric data may include physiological measurements, genetic data, medical images, laboratory examinations, and other measurements related to a person's activity, lifestyle, and surrounding environment. There will be increased demand on processing and interpreting such data for accurate alerting and signalling of risks and for supporting healthcare professionals in their decision making, informing family members, and the person himself/herself. With these facts in mind we can distinguish three large groups of applications and levels of systems. The first group contains systems we call recommendation and suggestion systems, which are systems we can find, for example, in the area of well-being and fitness, and which serve mainly for informing the clients about their health status. The second group -decision support systems- should serve as guidance for professionals and experienced users, like activy athletes. The third group -decision making systems- are systems that are directly linked with actuator part influencing patient health. Deadline for contributions is 20 December 2012.

Springer Publishing has released the book developed through the Future BNCI project, called "Towards Practical Brain Computer Interfaces". This book contains chapters from some of the top people in BCI research, edited by the FBNCI team. Future BNCI was a project devoted to helping BCI research and the BCI research community. It ran over two years from January 2010 to December 2011 and was co-funded under the European Commission's seventh research framework programme.

The first Conference of Partners of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing took place in Brussels on 6 November. The Conference was headlined by European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes, Commissioner Maire Geoghegan Quinn, Kathleen Lynch, the Irish Minister of State from the Department of Health and Department of Justice, and the Spanish Secretary General of Health and Consumers, Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, María Pilar Farjas Abadía.

The Ambient Assisted Living Association (AALA) held an event at the European Parliament, hosted by Mr Heinz Becker MEP and Mr Lambert van Nistelrooji MEP to present the outcomes of the AAL Joint Programme following five years of stimulating innovation in the field of ICT for ageing (resulting in SMEs and other organisations building new supply chains and collaborations) and to illustrate the advantages of a follow-up Joint Programme across Europe for the period 2014-2020. The event was the opportunity for a diversified audience to understand the substantial progress of projects funded under the Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme, which are now showing real results. The conference had two main outcomes: firstly, the robust commitment of both Members of the European Parliament, who strongly endorsed the follow-up of the AAL Joint Programme in the period between 2014 and 2020 and secondly the interactive demonstrations of the AAL JP projects, which clearly presented the services and devices developed to help older adults living more independently and healthily.

As part of the 10th European Week of Regions and Cities, a workshop convened on 9 October 2012 explored the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing: The Opportunity for Regions. As regional authorities are confronted with health and care services, this session represented a key moment for regions across the EU to share best practices and policy experiences amongst one another. Regions in attendance will ultimately drive the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA). Pilot schemes embodying the spirit of the Partnership presented by representatives from Flanders (Belgium), Drenthe (Netherlands) and Galicia (Spain) were showcased. The workshop showed how regions can collaborate to achieve the triple win pursued by the EIP on AHA, ensuring better care for people, more sustainable care systems and economic growth and jobs. These regions will have a prominent role at the first Conference of Partners on November 6, where the stakeholders coalitions that replied to the Invitation for Commitments will finally unveil their action plans.

The workshop will serve, on the one hand, as a sounding board to engage regions in this initiative and, on the other hand, to present smart specialisation strategies for innovation at regional level by investing in innovative solutions for active and healthy ageing. Concrete examples and good practice cases from cohesion policy programmes from across Europe will be presented as well as presenting the current status of the EIP actions that are being shaped to showcase the various ways regions can tap into the opportunities of the EIP and cohesion programmes. The workshop will be covered via twitter; questions and comments can be submitted as of now via hash tag #eipopendays.

The project HELP (Home based empowered living for parkinson’s deaseases patients) won the second edition of the AAL FORUM award. This award was intended to recognize the most promising project of the Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme that demonstrates great promise in terms of innovation, human-centric approaches to development and market potential.