With an ageing population comes an anticipated leap in the numbers of individuals with dementia, and it is advisable both from an economic and community perspective to maintain home-based care for individuals with dementia for as long as possible. Ambient assistive and sensor technologies comprise a key contribution towards helping the person with dementia maintain independence in their community, by supporting their health, lifestyle, and safety, in an unobtrusive manner. Ambient technologies can be used to assess the status of the individual with dementia, and also to enable their independent home-based living for as long as possible. Methodology Dem@Care is an FP7 funded initiative, which aims to provide multi-parametric remote monitoring and enablement for persons with dementia living in the community. We here describe the goals of Dem@Care, as well as the principles behind its design, and early identified issues with deployment. Results We report relevant guiding principles from the literature, as well as principles arising from the team’s own clinical expertise. These principles include user-centred design, individualisation, involving the caregiver, and the prioritising of unobtrusive monitoring. Our goals include the successful enhancement of the quality of life of individuals with dementia, and the efficient and unobtrusive design of technological sensor-based systems in the home. We outline our plans to date to deploy the complete Dem@Care in the homes of community-dwelling older adults with dementia. An emphasis throughout is maintained on the individualised, ‘toolbox’ nature of the system, since we are aware that one size does not fit all for dementia. Conclusions The current proposal introduces the Dem@Care project, as a system for remote management and enablement of persons with dementia. We anticipate valuable insights pertaining to dementia care arising from this multidisciplinary initiative.