Major investment in the development of digital welfare services

DigitalWell Arena, a Värmland-based project that includes Computer Science at Karlstad University, is one of the winners of Vinnova’s Vinnväxt competition. Over 10 years, SEK 148 million will be invested in the development of digital welfare services. The aim is to make it easy for all residents to prevent illness and receive the necessary support regarding health issues.

Through the Academy for Smart Specialisation and Vinnova, Karlstad University is granted around SEK 26 million for the initial three-year phase. The funding is shared by the Computer Science research group, the Service Research Center (CTF), Nursing, the Centre for Gender Studies (CGF) and the Grants and Innovation Office.

“It is fantastic that we as a university can contribute to the development of welfare service through excellent research. I think this will also be positive for recruiting researchers to our research groups,” says Vice-Chancellor Johan Sterte.

Three focus areas
Computer Science will contribute research related to 5G service quality, safety and privacy for IT-based systems, and support for the development of prototype software-based services.

“The first phase of the ongoing DigitalWell Research project ends during the spring, and we see this as a continuation,” says Stefan Alfredsson, project manager and senior lecturer in Computer Science at Karlstad University. “We will continue the development of a 5G testbed and evaluate its service quality. This could for example involve sending data from a patients’ medical measuring equipment or a mobile clinic that needs to be connected. Both situations place demands on the service quality of the connection, such as low delay, high capacity or otherwise high dependability.”

“Research on cybersecurity and privacy also forms part of the project. It is important that only authorised users can access sensitive patient data. Moreover, we are going to investigate how we can support organisations that develop and provide digital solutions in making sure their solutions are of high quality and compliant with the IT architectures in place in the Swedish e-Healthcare sector.”

The DigitalWell Arena initiative involves Compare, Region Värmland, Värmland County Council, Karlstad University, Värmland’s County Adminstrative Board, Karlstad Municipality, Karlstad Electricity & Urban Network, RISE Service Labs, MSB, Tieto, CGI, Nordic Medtest, Effect Management and Xmentor Management.

More information on DigitalWell Arena from Vinnova, Sweden’s Innovation Agency (in swedish).