Member Article

Silver ?scouts? recruited by Newcastle Science City

An unusual set of researchers has been enlisted to help Newcastle Science City’s plans for the next three years.

Thirty older people from the region were asked to share their experiences of daily life to help the NSC’s Innovation Machine project, which aims to create companies by providing solutions to problems.

The group met for a day-long workshop at St James’ Park, where they all pooled their experiences to identify common problems they face, where products or solutions either don’t exist or do exist and don’t solve the problem satisfactorily. This information will be used to identify opportunities for new businesses and future research. Opportunities discussed included how to let people know their food is past its sell-by date and the need for help with memory problems.

Estelle Chatard, NSC programme director, said: “We had a great response to our workshop and these people hold the key to a number of great business propositions for us. They represent a huge number of the population and actually, their problems often apply to everyone, not just their own age group. We have already identified gaps in the market from talking to these people and now we need to test the solutions to see if they can be turned into profitable enterprises.”

Among the issues discussed at the event were a vast range of service and product needs ranging from the availability of public toilets, the appropriateness of 1960s town planning for today’s pedestrians and window opening mechanisms.

Further workshops and activities focusing on problems faced by older people and an investigation into possible solutions are to be held in the future. For more information contact Laura Williams at [laura.williams@newcastlesciencecity.com](mailto: laura.williams@newcastlesciencecity.com).

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .