PiTiPs

Period: 01.04.2022 – 31.12.2025

Around 80 per cent of the 4.1 million people in need of care in Germany are currently cared for in their home environment – and the trend is rising. Informal carers are the main actors in this field. Together with professional care services and other support services, they form what is known as care communities.

To relieve the burden on these groups, there is increasing discussion about how digital means could provide support with care. In order for socio-technical innovations to meet the diverse needs of informal caregivers and care communities and to meet the specific challenges of informal care settings and people’s specific  life circumstances, it is necessary to involve this target group at an early stage.

This is where the evaluative project PiTiPS comes in. The project consortium accompanies a wide range of collaborative projects funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in order to systematically record, support and thereby further develop the participatory development of socio-technical innovations in the context of informal care.

To this end, it pursues a two-fold strategy: The first undertaking is to provide technical infrastructures (various participation labs and a participation hub) and scientific know-how in the disciplines represented in the accompanying project (social, nursing/care, behavioural sciences, and participation and technology research) to enable and implement participation processes. The other is to scientifically analyse these aspects for the further development of theoretical approaches, methods and recommendations for action. By combining these service and research activities, PiTiPS pursues the overarching aim of strengthening the participation of informal caregivers and care communities in socio-technical innovation contexts, integrating their needs and interests together with the potential for innovation into the R&D context, and contributing to a long-term improvement in the quality of life for informal caregivers.