Research into the suitability of childcare articles for high-demand markets – PUERIPLUS
The purpose of the PUERIPLUS project is to investigate how articles designed a priori for domestic use behave in other non-domestic contexts. It also offers solutions for the industry, so that it can adapt such articles to the needs of high-demand markets, such as nursery schools, day-care centres, leisure centres, hotels and other tourist accommodations, restaurants and other establishments, and public places.
In this sense, this project is a pre-normative study on the suitability of childcare articles for non-domestic environments.
Placing childcare articles on the market that have been adapted for use outside the domestic context represents a unique differential value for the childcare companies in the Community of Valencia Region that produce such articles. In fact, there are currently no children’s products on the market that have been specifically designed for use in a non-domestic environment.
Although childcare articles are exclusively designed for domestic use in the home, they are also used in non-domestic environments, such as nursery schools, day-care centres, leisure centres, hotels, restaurants and other establishments, and public places.
However, there are important differences between a domestic and a non-domestic use that have an impact on product safety. Due to certain factors inherent in the non-domestic environment such as the proximity of a large number of children to the product, a lower level of supervision, personnel unfamiliar with the use of the product, or the intensive use of the product, the risk of serious injury to children may be increased. And this is a consequence of the use of products designed for domestic use in non-domestic contexts.
In addition and increasingly so, certain markets are demanding equipment that is suitable for intensive use and adapted to the specific requirements of the non-domestic environment. In this sense, tenders for the provision of equipment for public centres – children’s schools or nurseries – give special consideration to children’s products whose designs are in keeping with their real conditions of use.
In the tourism sector, having equipment that meets the needs of the environment and of the child constitutes a competitive advantage through the quality seals and markings that are issued to establishments that specialise in family tourism.
The results of this project are on the one hand to generate knowledge on the risks of childcare articles in the non-domestic environment, and on the other, to develop methodologies and procedures to assess the risks of at least three types of products in the non-domestic context. The knowledge will be transferred to the industry in a practical way through a “Guide to Design Recommendations for the Adaptation of Childcare Articles to Non-Domestic Environments”.
We also hope to improve the level of innovation of products manufactured by companies in the childcare sector in the Community of Valencia and by doing so, help them to obtain products with added value, for a two-fold use, in the domestic context (the home) and in the non-domestic context (schools, hotels or restaurants).
Project subsidised by IVACE, the Valencian Institute for Business Competitiveness of the Regional Government of Valencia, 50% co-financed through the FEDER Operational Programme of the Valencian Community 2014-2020, under file IMDEEA/2017/58
- Start date: January 2017.
- Duration: 12 months
- Status: Completed
SECTORS OF APPLICATION:
- Consumer goods / clothing.
- Health and quality of life.
TECHNOLOGICAL AREAS:
- Technologies for health and well-being.
- Competitive intelligence.
IVACE PROGRAMME:
- Programme: AID FOR R&D PROJECTS IN COOPERATION WITH COMPANIES for the 2017 financial year (DOCV No. 8020, dated 12/04/2017).
CONTACT COORDINATOR:
- Name: Karina Pernías Peco
- Telephone: 96 555 44 75
- e-mail: laboratorio@aiju.es