SPOMINCICA ALZHEIMER SLOVENIJA SLOVENSKO ZDRUZENJE ZA POMOC PRI DEMENCI

Their core work

Spominčica (Slovenian for "forget-me-not") is Slovenia's national Alzheimer's and dementia patient association, providing direct support services to people living with dementia and their caregivers. In EU research, they function as the patient-community voice in large international consortia — ensuring that research designs, technology deployments, and clinical protocols stay grounded in the realities of daily dementia care. Their H2020 participation ranges from patient recruitment and engagement in clinical studies (MOPEAD) to active involvement in deploying affective computing and multi-sensing technology in real care environments (TeNDER). For research consortia, they provide something most academic or technology partners cannot: direct access to dementia patients, families, and formal care networks in Slovenia.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their first H2020 project (MOPEAD, 2016–2019) placed them squarely in patient recruitment and engagement for Alzheimer's disease clinical studies — a pure advocacy and community-access role with modest direct funding (€25,991). The TeNDER project (2019–2023) marks a clear shift: they moved into technology-enabled care, working with affective computing and multi-sensing environments to deliver integrated care for better quality of life, and their EC funding jumped twelvefold to €327,750. This trajectory suggests a deliberate move from passive patient representative to active contributor in digital health interventions for dementia.

They are evolving from a community-access partner into a hands-on contributor to digital health and affective technology deployments — making them increasingly relevant to consortia at the intersection of dementia care and assistive technology.

How they like to work

Spominčica participates exclusively as a consortium member, never as coordinator — consistent with a patient association whose primary contribution is community reach, lived-experience knowledge, and end-user access rather than scientific or technical leadership. Their 28 unique partners across 12 countries from just 2 projects reflects the large, multinational consortium structure typical of IMI2 and H2020 Innovation Actions, where patient organisations are systematically included. This means working with them is low-friction: they join large teams, fill a well-defined patient-representative role, and do not compete for project leadership.

With 28 unique consortium partners across 12 countries from only 2 projects, Spominčica has connected with a disproportionately broad European network — a direct result of the large consortium sizes in IMI2 and H2020 Innovation Actions. Their network likely spans dementia research institutes, technology developers, and health system representatives across Western and Central Europe.

What sets them apart

Spominčica is the only Slovenian national-level dementia patient association with documented H2020 research participation, giving them a near-exclusive position as the go-to civil society partner for dementia projects requiring Slovenian patient cohorts or caregiver networks. Their recent involvement in affective computing — unusual for an NGO of this type — signals a level of digital health literacy that distinguishes them from advocacy-only patient organisations. For consortia building under Horizon Europe or IMI, they fill the patient-representative slot for Slovenia while also contributing practical knowledge of technology deployment in real-world dementia care settings.

Highlights from their portfolio

• TeNDER
  Their largest and most technically ambitious project (€327,750), introducing affective computing and multi-sensing environments to dementia care — a significant expansion beyond traditional patient advocacy work.
• MOPEAD
  An IMI2 public-private partnership on Alzheimer's patient engagement models, demonstrating early access to the highest-tier EU health research consortia.