As the number of older adults rises across Europe, meeting the needs of an ageing population is an increasingly pressing challenge. Martin Neys, Project Manager at Partenamut, one of Belgium's largest mutual health organisations, discusses why older adults must be at the centre of designing and testing new solutions, as we reimagine what it means to support healthy ageing.
As of 1 January 2025, the European Union counted 450.6 million inhabitants, 22% of whom were aged 65 or over, nearly three percentage points more than a decade ago. According to Eurostat projections, the number of older adults is expected to continue rising, approaching 130 million by 2050, or 29% of the population. These figures, striking as they may be, tell only part of the story. They signal not merely a demographic shift, but a broader societal transformation that calls for a fundamental rethinking of how we conceive and organise ageing.
A system under pressure, an opportunity to seize
The challenge is well known: public authorities alone cannot meet the growing demand for care and home support. Residential care capacity is reaching its limits, while the aspirations of future generations of older adults are converging towards a common goal: remaining active and independent, preserving quality of life, and continuing to thrive for as long as possible in their own homes regardless of income level, digital literacy or place of residence.
This tension between rising needs and constrained public resources is creating space for the development of the silver economy, a sector still taking shape, where technologies and innovative service models can help support ageing in place through the early detection of health issues, rapid responses to emerging needs, and improved coordination of care.
Yet markets do not emerge spontaneously. The Wallonie Assist @ Home (Wa@H) — a research and action project helping people over 65 years and/or with disabilities live in their homes for as long as possible — provides a compelling illustration. Led since 2023 by EuroHealthNet’s member, the Centre d'Initiatives et d'Actions Santé (CIAS), the initiative has deployed more than 1,800 digital assistance telecare devices in real households across French-speaking Belgium. Its findings are revealing: many technological innovations struggle to gain traction not because they lack relevance, but because they were developed without a sufficiently deep understanding of users' everyday realities and unmet needs. As a result, many solutions remain insufficiently mature. The people concerned consistently express the same expectations: solutions that are simple, reliable, adaptable and easy to understand, and that can respond to the often non-linear trajectories of ageing.
The Silver Hub: bridging citizens, businesses and public authorities
Within the Belgian social security system, mutual health organisations are private, non-profit entities entrusted with public-interest missions related to health insurance and health support services. In this context, Partenamut, one of Belgium's largest mutual health organisations, established the Silver Hub through its non-profit organisation CIAS, with the objective of building stronger links between innovation and real-world needs.
The Silver Hub brings together an interdisciplinary consortium of universities, business incubators and field-based organisations. Its ambition is to become the leading reference structure for supporting quality of life at home for people experiencing loss of autonomy in French-speaking Belgium.
The Silver Hub seeks to document the value delivered to end users through independent evaluations grounded in real-life needs and experiences. And it goes beyond testing technologies; it also identifies emerging needs through communities of citizens and professionals, develops shared evaluation frameworks, supports the implementation of mature solutions, and provides evidence to inform public decision-making.
The most significant contribution of this approach is therefore not technological, but societal. By building user communities and creating programmes involving Expert Seniors that intentionally bring together tech-savvy users, non-experts and even individuals reluctant to engage with technology, the Silver Hub shifts the perspective. Older people are no longer viewed solely as recipients of solutions designed for them; they become active contributors to the design, testing and continuous improvement of those solutions.
Towards a new narrative on ageing
This initiative ultimately points to a gradual departure from the traditional narrative of ageing as a problem to be managed. Instead, it promotes a vision in which growing older entails new needs, certainly, but also new opportunities for participation, autonomy and social contribution. When rooted in genuine engagement with users and communities, the silver economy need not be limited to producing connected devices and technological gadgets. It can become a space where intergenerational solidarity, care models and the role of older adults in the economy itself are reimagined.
The road ahead is still long. Funding for structures such as the Silver Hub remains limited, requiring the development of projects capable of attracting support from Belgian and European public authorities. Likewise, adopting new technologies continues to depend on human support and guidance that innovation alone cannot provide. Yet the momentum is real. The lessons accumulated in recent years, combined with the mobilisation of diverse actors — such as mutual health organisations, universities, technology companies and older adults themselves — are helping to shape a model in which ageing well means more than receiving care. It means remaining a full participant in one's own life and, more broadly, in society.
Learn more about the silver economy
Wallonie Assist @ Home (Wa@h) is a small-scale study that aims to help people over 65 and/or with disabilities live at home as long as possible, independently and peacefully, while potentially delaying their entry into a nursing home or institution.
The Silver Hub is the leading organisation in French-speaking Belgium dedicated to the quality of life at home for the elderly and people with disabilities. It is a knowledge hub, capable of conveying real-world experiences: the needs expressed within the communities it supports, lessons learned from on-site solution testing, and user feedback gathered from both users and professionals
Martin Neys
At CIAS – Partenamut, Martin Neys is involved in projects that connect health, social innovation and sustainable development. Through his work with the Silver Hub consortium, he supports collaboration between healthcare providers, researchers, organisations and end users to better understand needs and test practical solutions for ageing well. This approach draws on more than ten years of experience in the circular economy and sustainability, where he worked with public authorities, companies and entrepreneurs to turn ideas into concrete initiatives. He also contributes to projects that improve access to psychological support and well-being services.