The SOCBIOAfri project takes up key challenges formulated by the High Level African Panel on Modern Biotechnology in its report ?Freedom to innovate?: that introducing biosafety frameworks into Africa requires the active engagement of the public, the development of educational and training facilities, and regional private-public cooperation and partnerships. It also builds on the fact that EU countries and most African countries have ratified the Cartagena protocol, which includes the ?precautionary principle? for the introduction of biotechnology. Europe-Africa collaboration on learning from experiences with biotechnology and on effective policies is therefore expected to be highly relevant. The project connects teams in Kenya, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Belgium and the Netherlands in investigating biotechnological innovation in Africa. It thereby addresses issues of policy development, technology regulation and capacity-building initiatives of relevance to all parties involved in biotechnology applications, including small-hold farmers and their organizations. The shared approach adopted by the project is derived from contemporary Science & Technology Studies (STS) and applies a co-evolutionary approach in which technological and societal innovations are analysed as co-determining processes. SOCBIOAfri aims to contribute to research on privately and publicly financed biotechnology innovations in Africa, relating these to requirements for elaborating effective policy frameworks for biotechnology in Africa. It also aims to contribute to capacity-building in the analysis of biotechnology and in policy development. The project focuses on the interrelated challenges arising from the policy, economic and sociocultural aspects of biotechnology innovation in farming. Thus, it is highly interdisciplinary in design, with strong roots in relevant African academic and policy institutions. The project will pay special attention to questions of regulation biotechnology regulation and to the possibilities of facilitating innovations that benefit small-hold farmers. SOCBIOAfri has formulated the following specific research questions: " What are the key differences between biotechnology-based agriculture projects in Africa as compared to current dominant agricultural farm systems in Africa with respect to the social (including socioeconomic) and environmental consequences? " What are the key differences between commercially/privately funded and publicly funded biotechnology projects in several African countries with respect to the role of and socioeconomic impact on stakeholders, the choice of crops, IPR, required farm systems, etc.? " What are the perceptions of stakeholders concerning the role of biotechnology in food security, food sovereignty, socioeconomic infrastructure and the environment? How can stakeholder (including small-hold farmers and local communities) interests and their views be represented in participatory decision-making procedures and innovation processes with respect to biotechnology policies? " What forms of biotechnology (with respect to social conditions and the kind of applications) can support local African agricultural practices? During the project, mutual interaction and exchange of information will occur through international workshops in all participating countries, short stays by African researchers in Europe and the construction of a project website. African stakeholders will be involved through participation in workshops, interviews and surveys. The project will deliver peer-reviewed papers, trained African researchers, training frameworks for regulators and recommendations for policy and for scientific and technology innovation procedures.

Our increased life expectancy unfortunately goes hand in hand with an increased number of years living with chronic conditions. These conditions cannot be cured, but both the development of comorbidities and the quality of life are strongly influenced by proper self-management and by deploying a healthy lifestyle. In the EDIC project, we develop a novel data-driven artificial coaching platform that supports chronically ill patients in making optimal lifestyle decisions. We bring in expertise in data mining, telemedicine, e-coaching, behavioral sciences and domain expertise, and particularly focus on the bariatric and diabetes-2 patient population.

Deploying an active lifestyle is considered important in order to be able to live their lives independently and to be more self-supporting, especially for elderly. Gaming technologies are believed to offer opportunities to increase the motivation of elderly for physical activity without additional burden on both formal and informal health care. Despite the fact that the elderly population is an important, large, growing and power purchasing target population for games, very few of the available games today specifically target the elderly population and/or fail to achieve a long-term behavioral change in activity patterns during daily life. In the MAGGY project ambulant sensing of physical activities anytime and anywhere will be integrated with ambulant game environments enabling elderly to play throughout the day in the real world setting and no longer confining them to a single location to play. In order to achieve a long term behavioral change, the objective of the current project is to investigate the preferred motivation strategies and effective gamification feedback strategies in elderly by means of a combining a user-centered design approach with experimental work based on theoretical models related to player motivation strategies and behavioral change. Partners in this project are the University of Twente, Roessingh Research and Development, GameShip BV, TriviumMeulenbeltZorg and Paramedisch Instituut Rembrandt. The project starts 1st of May 2013 and will run for two years.