Platform Workshop VI: where People, Technology and Innovation meet in care Inspirations from Austria

🌍 Caring Communities Platform Event – Highlights

A Shared Mission Across Borders

From Germany to Bulgaria, participants came together to discuss how we can rethink care across the Danube region. The challenges may differ in detail, but the message was clear: care is a shared, transnational issue.
Like the Danube River itself, the Caring Communities Project serves as a connector, linking people, professionals, and communities in pursuit of better solutions.

Austria’s Contribution

Austria presented several inspiring innovations, including:

🤖 Caring Robots (Roboticare) – exploring how AI and robotics can support care through participatory design.
🧠 Dementia-friendly services – making care environments more inclusive and supportive.
💡 Philosophical and systematic approaches – broadening the conversation about what it means to create a caring community.

Key Insights from the Caring Robots Project

Robots and AI are often suggested as answers to the care crisis, yet adoption remains low. Why? Because people most affected are rarely involved early in the process.
The Roboticare project shifts this dynamic by focusing on participatory design, asking: What should robots do, not just what could they do?

Research activities include:

Ethnographic field studies in care homes and mobile care
Workshops with caregivers and residents
Co-created ideas for documentation support (AI & speech-to-text) and conversational AI for dementia care

Findings underline a crucial truth:

Care is about trust, relationships, routines, and negotiation.
Technology must respect this complexity and the ethical dimensions of care.

Core Themes Across the Event

There is no one-size-fits-all solution in care.
Innovation must balance human needs and technology.
Knowledge-sharing and collaboration are key to sustainable care models.
Supporting informal caregivers is just as essential as advancing professional services.

In Summary

The event showcased the power of collaboration across borders, highlighted Austria’s leadership in care innovations, and reinforced a central message: the future of care must be co-created, sustainable, and human-centered.