HANKAMP REHAB BV

Their core work

Hankamp Rehab is a Dutch SME specializing in rehabilitation technology and assistive devices for physically disabled people, with a focus on restoring upper limb function — reaching, grasping, and arm movement. The company brings practical product development and clinical rehabilitation expertise into EU research consortia working on smart prosthetics and intention-driven assistive systems. Their H2020 participation covers both the human-machine interface side (detecting user intent from neural or muscular signals) and the mechanical side (soft robotic prosthetics and orthoses). As a private company in this space, they likely bridge the gap between academic research prototypes and real-world rehabilitation products.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both projects started within one year of each other (2015 and 2016), so there is no long temporal arc to analyze — Hankamp Rehab entered H2020 with a clear and consistent focus on physical rehabilitation technology for the upper limb. The move from eNHANCE (intent detection, personalized control) to SoftPro (soft robotic foundations, open-source prosthetics) suggests a broadening from control systems toward the underlying mechanical and software platform layer. No keyword data is available to confirm a deeper shift, so this reading is based solely on project titles and descriptions.

Their trajectory points toward open, platform-level rehabilitation robotics — building reusable foundations rather than one-off devices — which makes them a natural partner for any consortium aiming to scale assistive technology into clinical or commercial settings.

How they like to work

Hankamp Rehab has participated exclusively as a non-leading consortium member across both projects, which is typical for a small specialist company contributing domain expertise rather than managing large research programs. With 20 unique partners across 7 countries from just two projects, they engage in medium-to-large consortia rather than tight bilateral collaborations. This pattern suggests they are experienced at integrating their rehabilitation product knowledge into multi-partner RIA projects and comfortable operating within complex EU research structures.

Hankamp Rehab has built a network of 20 unique partners across 7 countries from only two projects — an unusually broad reach for a two-project SME, indicating they joined large, well-connected research consortia. Their Enschede base puts them in proximity to the University of Twente, a strong robotics and biomedical engineering hub, likely shaping their partner geography toward Dutch and Northern European research institutions.

What sets them apart

Hankamp Rehab occupies a rare niche as a private SME bringing hands-on rehabilitation product experience into fundamental research consortia — most participants in prosthetics and assistive robotics projects are universities or research institutes. For a consortium builder, this means they can stress-test research prototypes against real clinical and commercial constraints that academic partners typically miss. Their participation in both a control-systems project and a soft-robotics platform project gives them an unusually integrated view across the full rehabilitation technology stack.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SoftPro
  Largest funding received (€288,125) and focused on open-source soft robotic foundations for prosthetics — a platform-level initiative with broad reuse potential across the rehabilitation field.
• eNHANCE
  Tackled the technically demanding problem of decoding user movement intention in real time to drive personalized upper-limb assistance — directly relevant to next-generation neuroprosthetics.