STICHTING SMART HOMES

Their core work

Stichting Smart Homes is an Eindhoven-based research foundation specializing in smart living environments for older adults and people with chronic health conditions. They develop and validate technology-enabled home solutions — from remote health monitoring and robot-assisted care to virtual reality rehabilitation — that help aging populations live independently. Their work bridges the gap between ICT innovation and real-world deployment in residential care settings, with a strong emphasis on co-creation with end users and care providers.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2015-2018), Smart Homes focused on clinical-grade monitoring and assistive robotics — projects like ENRICHME (robot-assisted elderly care) and Do CHANGE (cardiac health ecosystems) dealt with specific medical conditions and device-level interventions. From 2020 onward, their work shifted toward broader smart living ecosystems, virtual reality environments, and prevention-oriented approaches, as seen in SMILE and VR2Care. The evolution shows a move from single-condition clinical tools to integrated, community-oriented digital environments for healthy aging.

Moving toward immersive digital environments (VR, smart spaces) for preventive health and social inclusion of aging populations — expect future work at the intersection of XR technologies and eldercare.

How they like to work

Smart Homes operates exclusively as a consortium partner, never as coordinator, suggesting they contribute domain expertise in smart home environments and elderly care rather than leading project management. With 78 unique partners across 19 countries in just 7 projects, they connect with a wide variety of organizations — averaging over 11 unique partners per project. This broad network pattern indicates they are valued as a specialized contributor who brings real-world smart home testing and validation capabilities to diverse consortia.

Extensive European network spanning 78 partners across 19 countries, built through participation in mid-to-large consortia. Based in Eindhoven — a major European technology hub — they are well-connected across Western and Southern European health-tech ecosystems.

What sets them apart

Smart Homes occupies a distinctive niche at the intersection of residential smart home technology and elderly healthcare — a combination few research centres cover with equal depth. Located in Eindhoven's tech ecosystem, they bring a practical, living-lab perspective to aging-in-place research, grounding academic innovation in real home environments. Their progression from assistive robotics to VR-based rehabilitation shows they stay at the frontier of what technology can do for independent living.

Highlights from their portfolio

• Do CHANGE
  Largest single funding (EUR 662K) — a comprehensive cardiac health ecosystem project representing their deepest investment in remote patient monitoring.
• VR2Care
  Most recent project (2022-2024) combining virtual reality with physical rehabilitation — signals their strategic direction toward immersive health technologies.
• ENRICHME
  Combined long-term human-robot interaction with gerontology and non-invasive monitoring — a technically ambitious integration of robotics and elderly care.