Transformative innovations and best practices recognised for raising quality of eldercare and promoting ageing workforce to accelerate age inclusivity

SINGAPORE, May 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In light of APAC's fast-ageing population in the world, 27 notable influencers, trailblazers and promising startups from Singapore and the region were recognised for their innovative and outstanding contributions towards improving the quality of living for the elderly in the region at the 11^th Asia Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards Ceremony & Dinner on 25 May, held at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Singapore. They were selected out of over 200 submissions from 15 countries received, with over 700 industry guests from 21 countries in attendance. The awards ceremony and dinner was organised as part the World Ageing Festival and SUSS Geronpreneurship Innovation Festival held across 24 to 25 May.

The Ageing Startup Pitch Stadium

The Ageing Startup Pitch Stadium was an integral part of the Awards where early-stage startup entrepreneurs showcased their products and services to access Asia Pacific's projected USD4.56 trillion ageing market potential by 2025. Launched as a key segment of the inaugural SUSS Geronpreneurship Innovation Festival by the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), cash prizes totalling SGD5,000 were given out to the winner and runners-up of the SUSS Geronpreneurship New Innovation of the Year 2023. They are:

1.  Winner – Sunshine Seniors which offers a community-based eMarketplace to better serve the social and commercial needs of seniors. It empowers seniors by offering them a vibrant social community and a trustworthy market space of curated elder-friendly products and services.

2.  First Runner-up – Surety whose comprehensive and integrated platform assists mature women in effectively managing their perimenopausal symptoms, accessing expert advice and finding products and services tailored to their unique needs.

3.  Second Runner-up – Elec.net which provides a smart switchboard in the homes of older adults that comes with multiple functions to empower eldercare and caregiving. They include daily activity monitoring, early detection of behavioural changes, appliance safety check, electric fire prevention and others.

Professor Tan Tai Yong, SUSS President, said, "Through the SUSS Geronpreneurship Innovation Festival, we aim to bring more ecosystem players together to inspire and realise greater Geron-technology innovations to build an age-friendly future. SUSS is well-recognised for our leading Gerontology education and research speciality in Singapore among the community and industry. We will continue to deepen our engagements through our teaching and research work with private and public partners to build an inclusive and healthier society and workforce in Singapore."

Through this platform, SUSS aims to provide an opportunity for people with high-potential concepts as well as startups with demonstrated business model implementations in the region to bring their innovations to life and impact the future of ageing.

11^th Asia Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards

Launched in 2013, the annual Asia Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards is a first-of-its-kind in the Asia Pacific region created to recognise organisations and the teams for their innovative and quality approaches to change the way the region's older adults age and applaud their contributions in shaping the future of the ageing landscape. In this new normal, the Asia Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards continue to recognise and honour organisations that commit to improving the quality of life, care and happiness for elders through their innovations in business, operations and care delivery.

This year's Eldercare Innovation Awards, akin to the OSCARS of the APAC Eldercare industry, received close to 200 entry submissions from 17 countries – Australia, Mainland China, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, The Netherlands, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE and USA. This is the first return of the awards in a large scale since COVID-19.

The qualifying entries were reviewed by a panel of global industry experts from Australia, Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand.

The 2023 recipients of the Global Ageing Influencers and Global Ageing Trailblazers awards were also announced and honoured during the awards ceremony and dinner. A total of 10 Ageing Influencers were honoured for their outstanding achievements impacting ageing in Asia Pacific while 8 Ageing Trailblazers were recognised for their multi-disciplinary leadership in ageing that inspired change in their home countries.

Dr The Honourable Lam Ching-Choi, BBS, JP, Member of the Executive Council, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, The People's Republic of China, Chairman, Elderly Commission, Hong Kong SAR, and CEO, Haven of Hope Christian Service, Hong Kong SAR, was awarded the Global Ageing Influencer (Special Recognition) – a highly regarded industry recognition to honour outstanding achievements of the most dynamic and forward-thinking leaders who are driving innovation and fostering collaborations across the business, government and community sectors to change the future of ageing in Asia Pacific.

A total of 35 award categories, including six new categories for the healthcare architectural space that recognise and honour the creative and innovative minds behind the many built environments to raise the quality of life, care and happiness for the region's elders, were also given out.

World Ageing Festival & SUSS Geronpreneurship Innovation Festival

The Ageing Asia 2023 – World Ageing Festival (14^th Edition) and Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) Geronpreneurship Innovation Festival were held from 24 to 25 May 2023 at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, along the International Ageing Week in Singapore (also the largest International Ageing Festival in the world). The entire festival showcased key highlights including the 11^th Asia Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards 2023, the Active Ageing Seminar and the Ageing Asia Innovation Exhibition that curated the world's top 100 products to enable successful ageing – Assistive Living, Home & Community Care, Active Ageing, Technology and Rehabilitation & Wellness.

The first in Asia and Singapore, the inaugural SUSS Geronpreneurship Innovation Festival is a key initiative rolled out under the Ngee Ann Kongsi (NAK) Social Impact Hub, established through SUSS with an SGD10 million donation to the university. The festival hosted a pitch challenge for gerontology-focused startups and showcased next-generation geronpreneurship solutions and strategies with SUSS partners. Open to the public, aspiring entrepreneurs were invited to participate and selected by a panel of judges comprising venture capitalists, academics and industry experts in the eldercare sector.

With the launch of this platform, SUSS aims to showcase and inspire innovations in gerontology by generating sustainable interest and funding activities for geronpreneurship startups, as well as actively engage various corporate and community stakeholders to play a part in advancing the Gerontology sector. As a university dedicated to learning for life and impacting lives, SUSS has a rich heritage in continuous education and transforming society through its applied teaching and research work as well as extensive partnerships with the community and industry.

The World Ageing Festival, organised by homegrown Singaporean social enterprise, Ageing Asia, celebrates global care innovations with 5,000 participants across B2B2C, 100 speakers, 100 exhibitors, 100 products and reach to 50 countries over 5 exciting days. Each year, the platform provides an opportunity for new innovations, product launches and showcases.

In 2023, the theme of "Celebrating Life and Longevity" addressed the mindset shift of new generations of older people who aspire for health, independence and purpose. The vision of the International Ageing Week by Ageing Asia is to encourage global knowledge exchange, cross-industry collaborations and sector partnerships to help accelerate the launch of new projects and innovations.

Ageing Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore

Ageing Asia is Asia Pacific's first industry alliance on the business of ageing. We are an independent global eldercare knowledge platform with a community of business, government and community leaders that aim to drive change in the future of ageing in Asia Pacific. Our vision is to lead an advocacy and educational role in improving quality and standards of eldercare, nurture partnerships and curate development of solutions that address the new opportunities and market demands of the ageing baby boomer population. For more information on Ageing Asia, please visit www.ageingasia.com.

Singapore University of Social Sciences

SUSS is a university with a rich heritage in inspiring lifelong education and transforming society through social sciences. We develop students and alumni to be work-ready and work-adaptive, aspiring to reach their full potential, through our 3H's education philosophy – 'Head' for professional competency with applied knowledge, 'Heart' for social awareness of the needs of the society, and 'Habit' for passion towards lifelong learning. We offer more than 90 undergraduate and graduate programmes, available in full- and part-time study modes which are flexible, modular and interdisciplinary, catering to both fresh school leavers and adult learners. SUSS also offers a broad range of continuing education and training modular courses for the professional skills upgrading of Singapore's workforce.

Our programmes and courses are offered by our five schools:

• S R Nathan School of Human Development
• School of Business
• School of Humanities and Behavioural Sciences
• School of Law
• School of Science and Technology

To date, over 44,000 graduates have experienced our unique brand of education, and each year, over 21,000 students are pursuing their full- and part-time studies with us.

The Institute for Adult Learning (IAL), as part of SUSS, leads in the field of research on adult and workplace learning and training of adult educators to build capabilities of the training and adult education sector in Singapore and beyond.

For more information on SUSS, please visit suss.edu.sg.