About
Collaborative Digital Health Innovation
NetwellCASALA has established strong regional, national, and international collaborations with researchers, healthcare providers, industry partners, policymakers, community organisations, and citizen end-users. These partnerships place us at the forefront of human-centred digital health research and innovation, enabling us to address key challenges relating to healthy ageing, neurodiversity, women’s health, physical activity, and health behaviours across the life-course. Through collaborative and multidisciplinary engagement, we develop inclusive, evidence-based digital solutions that respond to real-world needs and support health, wellbeing, and quality of life.
For over two decades, NetwellCASALA has led and contributed to a range of impactful national and international projects, including the Atlantic Philanthropies-funded Great Northern Haven smart home initiative in Dundalk, the Horizon 2020 ProACT project, and multiple EU, Research Ireland, HSE, and PEACEPlus funded initiatives. Our research remains grounded in co-design, public and patient involvement, and real-world implementation, with collaboration and applied impact at the core of our approach.
A multidisciplinary, Applied Research Centre
NetwellCASALA is a leading applied multidisciplinary research centre focused on the design, development, and evaluation of inclusive digital health and wellbeing technologies. Our research spans healthy ageing, physical activity and women’s health, neurodiversity across the life-course, and health behaviours and beliefs, translating innovative ideas into practical, evidence-based solutions that improve health, wellbeing, and quality of life.
We believe technology can empower people, strengthen communities, and support more accessible, person-centred models of health and care. End-users are central to all aspects of our work, which is grounded in collaboration, co-design, and public and patient involvement. We work closely with healthcare providers, community organisations, industry, policymakers, and academic partners to ensure our research responds to real-world needs and delivers meaningful societal impact.
The Living Lab
A living lab is defined as "a user-centred open-innovation ecosystem operating in a territorial context, integrating concurrent research and innovation processes within a public-private-people partnership". A living lab seeks to involve all stakeholders as co-creators and co-designers in the research. The NetwellCASALA living lab provides an array of environments that offer an opportunity, at every stage of the development cycle, to work with older people, carers, engineers, scientists, healthcare professionals and service providers in both realistic test environments and directly in the community. The NetwellCASALA Living Lab is a member of the European Network of Living Labs.
Design and Innovation Lab
The Design and Innovation Lab has been developed and equipped to function as a dedicated space for workshops, user testing, research participant sessions, student and CPD training sessions, team sprints, meetings and presentations. The Lab has also been equipped for the evaluation of physical performance testing, such as gait & balance as well as for testing wearable devices to measure physical parameters. These innovation and performance spaces will support greater in-house interaction between NetwellCASALA and our stakeholders across all phases of the innovation process, as well as the application of learnings in the form of an enhanced, interdepartmental and external, teaching and learning agenda for the centre and Living Lab.
