STICHTING NATIONAAL OUDERENFONDS

Their core work

Stichting Nationaal Ouderenfonds (National Elderly Fund) is a Dutch NGO that advocates for and supports older adults across the Netherlands, giving them access to a large community of elderly citizens and their networks. In EU research projects, they function as an end-user and community engagement partner, providing real-world access to older adult populations for technology pilots and validation studies. Their contribution to consortia is not technical research but rather user recruitment, field deployment support, and grounding technology solutions in the lived experience of elderly people. They have participated in large-scale European projects focused on cognitive assistance and active ageing, bringing the voice and needs of older adults directly into the innovation process.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the earlier project (ehcoBUTLER, from 2015), NFE's involvement centred on a relatively focused problem — assistive technology for elderly people with mild cognitive difficulties — with no broad technology stack evident in the keywords. By 2019, their second project (PHArA-ON) brought them into a much more complex ecosystem involving AI, big data, smart wearables, cloud platforms, privacy, cybersecurity, and open innovation marketplaces. The shift suggests NFE moved from simple user-facing assistive tools toward participation in large-scale digital health infrastructure projects where pilot communities (older adults) are a key success factor. The trend is toward more technologically ambitious projects, even though NFE's own contribution remains community and user access rather than technical development.

NFE is moving toward larger, more complex digital health consortia where access to real elderly user communities for piloting AI and wearable technologies is the scarce resource they provide.

How they like to work

NFE has never led an H2020 project, always joining as a participant within large consortia. Both projects involved extensive networks (PHArA-ON is known for its wide multi-country pilot structure), suggesting NFE is comfortable operating in complex, multi-partner environments without needing a central role. For consortium builders, this means NFE is a low-friction, mission-aligned partner who contributes specific community access without competing for project leadership.

NFE has built connections with 73 unique consortium partners across 16 countries through just two projects, reflecting the very large consortia typical of PHArA-ON and ehcoBUTLER. Their network is broad but driven by the composition of those specific large-scale Innovation Actions rather than repeated bilateral partnerships.

What sets them apart

As the Netherlands' national elderly fund, NFE holds a direct relationship with a large and organised community of older adults — something that technology developers, research institutes, and hospitals in aging-tech consortia cannot replicate internally. Their value proposition is not expertise in AI or sensors but in ensuring that such technologies are tested with real users in real-life settings rather than in controlled lab environments. For any consortium building a pilot that must demonstrate uptake and usability among elderly populations in the Netherlands, NFE is a natural and credible inclusion.

Highlights from their portfolio

• PHArA-ON
  The largest of NFE's two projects (€519,526 EC contribution), PHArA-ON is a flagship EU healthy ageing initiative involving AI, wearables, and open innovation calls — placing NFE inside one of the most ambitious digital health pilot ecosystems funded under H2020.
• ehcoBUTLER
  NFE's earliest H2020 engagement, targeting a specific and underserved population — elderly people with mild cognitive impairment — demonstrating their long-standing focus on tech-enabled independent living before it became mainstream.