The LEAD Academic Network connects research on digital inclusion with healthy ageing and innovation

The LEAD Academic Network participated and actively engaged in a guest lecture on digital inclusion and healthy ageing at the HOGENT Center for Entrepreneurship in Ghent on 23 September 2026. Held in the context of the Xerius-HOGENT Research Chair on Entrepreneurial Learning at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), the event featured Professor Myo Nyein Aung of Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine in Tokyo.

Introducing the lecture, Prof. Dr. Nico De Witte discussed demographic change and the need to support healthy ageing. Dr. Jorrit Campens presented Belgian initiatives and emphasised the importance of developing user-friendly applications with the end-users before bringing them to market.

Professor Aung presented Digitally Inclusive Healthy Ageing Communities (DIHAC), a cross-cultural research initiative running from 2021 to 2030 across ten countries. He identified three related gaps in digital inclusion for older adults, including access to devices, the skills and capabilities needed to use them, and opportunities to participate in and benefit from digital services related to health education. Drawing on work in countries including Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore, he explored the digital skills elderly adults need and how support services could be customized to local circumstances.

Prof. Dr. Bart Derre, director of E-Lab: HOGENT Center for Entrepreneurship, discussed the implications of the project on entrepreneurship education and stressed the design-thinking capacity for entrepreneurs.

Together, the contributions offered a concrete starting point for ageing-friendly innovation: identify where older adults encounter barriers, involve them in designing responses, and consider how those responses would work in different communities. The lecture also showed the value of bringing research evidence, practical knowledge and users’ experiences into the contextualized design process.