The National Innovation Challenge (NIC) on Active and Confident Ageing aims to accelerate innovative solutions that can transform ageing experience in Singapore.
Together with our partners, IGA has successfully been awarded NIC grants in Cognition, Healthy Ageing Innovation and Falls Prevention, enabling the team composition to be multi- and interdisciplinary. Innovation and technology are key in the solutions proposed under these grants, backed by sound research methodologies to measure project outcomes, thus cutting across both our Research and Innovation pillars.
The aims of these respective projects, currently all underway, are highlighted below.
ADL+
The NIC Cognition grant is a joint partnership between IGA and the Joint NTU-UBC Research Centre of Excellence in Active Living for the Elderly (NTU-LILY). Responding to the challenge of delaying the onset of cognitive decline in older persons is the formulation of the ADL+, a digital toolkit for cognitive assessment and intervention. Harnessing the technological excellence of NTU-LILY and the clinical expertise at IGA, the ADL+ toolkit combines the capabilities of personalised cognitive training and behavioural data analytics to promote sustainable interventions to enable cognitive health.
SAIF
A tripartite collaboration NTU-LILY, IGA and the Peace Connect Cluster Operator (PeCCO), the NIC Healthy Ageing Innovation grant aims to reduce the risk, delay the onset and/or decelerate the progress of physical frailty in older persons. Our proposed System for Assessment and Intervention of Frailty (SAIF) serves to assess the risk of frailty in older persons and thereafter provide personalised interventions for them. Fostering a unique partnership, we are excited to bridge academia and engineers with clinical and community in this undertaking, to collectively enable health and connect older persons.
Falls Prevention
The NIC Falls Prevention grant, hosted by the Geriatric Education and Research Institute (GERI), leverages on the strengths of various partners and institutions. Besides developing an integrated ecosystem to prevent falls in the community through accurate screening and assessment, the project also aims to reduce the risk of falls by studying the effectiveness of exercise-based falls prevention programmes and overall cost-effectiveness of the ecosystem. In line with the grant challenge, we hope to enable health in our older persons and allow them to age-in-place.