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In 2008, we (JRC-IPTS1), in a project co-funded by DG CNECT, 2 highlighted the opportunities offered by ICTs for long-term care of elderly people, and for the first time for informal carers. We showed that ICTs for can help informal carers with their care tasks and improve the quality of care they give and their own wellbeing. Nevertheless, we also concluded that this potential is currently largely untapped, and that research is needed to obtain evidencebased results on impact, scalability and sustainable business models of ICT-enabled care services.

In 2010, DG CNECT asked us to contribute to the i2010 e-Inclusion policy, which was later revised under Chapter 63 of the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE). For this purpose, we signed an agreement in May 20104 with DG CNECT, to study the role played by information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the activities of social inclusion actors in an ageing society. We approached this need for research on the evidence-based results for ICTs for informal carers, and we carried out a study entitled'ICT for caregivers and other social actors: enhancing the sustainability of long-term care and social support'(CARICT) in 2011.