The European Commission has recently published a background paper on growing the European silver economy – and it is only a few days after the EU Summit that took place in Brussels with a similar subject: 'Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing seizes the Silver opportunity'.

It is difficult for me to understand why we still ignore the obvious: the elephant in all old people's living rooms will be … robots!

In the MARIO project we see the worrying reality of many people with dementia experiencing social exclusion, loneliness and isolation, which contribute to further cognitive decline. This will affect in many different ways also their families and, of course, our health systems. It is time to see how we researchers and scientists can best organise ourselves to help European governments to offer superb services to the growing number of the ageing population.