The Design led Innovations for Active Ageing project consists of a network of cities that drastically need to find economic and innovative yet sustainable solutions for senior care. Each participating city brings forth a best practice in the field of senior care and a need for a change of policy in that area. The project’s starting point is a shared European challenge: Demographic ageing is identified by the EU2020 Strategy as one of the main long-term challenges that Europe is facing post-crisis. On top of that many cities in Europe are facing budget deficits that might even continue to rise in the future. Europe needs innovative solutions and improved policies that enable better social and health care services with less money and fewer care takers. DAA is about learning from the best senior care practices of many leading cities of Europe. But DAA goes deeper and takes a hands-on approach to really understand the opportunities and challenges innovative solutions can offer.Innovation is about improved services, processes and products but also about making the most with the least financial cost. Innovations in technology, ICT, housing, procurements processes and public-private partnerships especially with SME involvement in the area of senior care all create major potential for Europe's competitiveness, both in the internal as well as global markets. The method for innovation creation in this project is to combine the expertise of senior care specialist in cities with the expertise of service designers.Combining design with social innovation is a novel approach and by doing so the project contributes to creating innovative products and services with new opportunities for EU businesses.The provision of services to an ageing population is at the core of the business of the involved city and regional authorities. The development organizations involved are responsible for promoting the use of design in public sector transformation.Project results are:Learning from established best practices, increased understanding of the complexity of senior care, well thought of innovative services and solutions, improved innovation capacity in city administration, and improved public sector policies. Also international peer-to-peer networks related to active ageing issues and design become stronger. Project results are communicated and disseminated through websites, events,local stakeholder networks and Helsinki World Design Capital 2012 events.Project methodology is holistic and integrated. Cities provide a system analysis of senior care placing the best practice and policies in the context. A field visit gives partners a closer look followed by an intensive collaborative workshop using desing methods to understand the challenges and opportunities. Workshops introduce different themes based on city best practices in a cumulative way: learning is increased by each new thematic area. Results are published in a Guidebook. Achievements: The project started in January and partners met in Brussels in February in order to achive a common understanding of what re-thinking of senior care services with the help of design means. This process will continue through-out the project. Understanding the uses of desing, the concept of desing, and its uses as a tool for innovation is very important for the project's goals. The project is structured in a way that each partner chooses a case/best practice in the field of senior case in their city. The chosen practices, although important and influential in nature, still need some improvement in order to really have an impact on the changing environment of Europan cities and their struggle against demographic changes and the challenges created by it. Each of the cities hires a design company that will look at the practice and after careful examination of the case pose the questions of what needs to be changed in order for real innovation to be able to be achived. The process of examining the case in its environment and the formulation of the design problem together form the first delivarable of the project's design process, in the project's language it's called a DESIGN BRIEF. Each of the cities participating DAA produced the first versions of the desing briefs in the first reporting period. Only the frist two workshop cities,Helsinki and Sofia, used a design company at this point. Another 5 cases were presentation of the best practice and city environments. The design comapny produced design briefs are produced closer to the workshops. Berlin changed the topic of the workshop and was not able to finish the draft design bried in the first period The first co-design workshop and study visit was held in Helsinki 23.5. before the workshop a brief about the Helsinki case (done by a service design company Palmu) was distributed to all partners. The Helsinki case is about design of decision -making processes and shared budgeting for senior care between several departments dealing with senior care issues with in the city of Helsinki. Project's kick-off seminar was held at the Helsinki City Hall on the 22nd of May with 130 participants. Cases of well designed senior care practices from Australia, GB, Finland and Netherlands were presented along with a speech by the Debuty Mayor of Helsinki in charge of Social Services. Sofia workshop and field visits: June 4 – 5, 2012. Participants: 50 Bulgarian stakeholders (deputy mayor of Sofia, director of Sofia municipality Social Affairs Directorate, representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, directors of residential homes for seniors, social workers, business representatives, NGOs; 22 representatives of DAA prtner cities. . " Strategic and service design procurement guidelines for public sector" were also finished. DAA is using innovative ways for procurement and guidelines for the were written by a project partner, Culminatum.