PODO ACTIVA SL

Their core work

PODOACTIVA is a Spanish podiatry and biomechanics company that designs and manufactures custom orthotic insoles and foot care solutions, serving clinical patients including those with diabetes. Their EU research activity shows them applying digital diagnostics — thermal cameras, smartphone imaging, and 3D foot scanning — to detect and prevent diabetic foot ulcers before they become wounds. More recently, they have expanded into sustainable bio-based and nano-enabled materials, likely exploring greener inputs for their orthotic product line. They are a rare combination of active clinical podiatry practice and applied materials and digital health R&D.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their first H2020 project (STANDUP, 2018) was squarely in digital health: using thermal cameras and smartphones to identify diabetic foot problems before clinical deterioration — a direct extension of their core podiatry business. By 2021, their second project (INN-PRESSME) shifted entirely into sustainable biomaterials, bio-sourced inputs, and eco-design within a large open-innovation manufacturing consortium. The likely thread connecting both is their orthotic product itself: first they digitised diagnosis, then they turned to greening the material inputs of their physical products.

PODOACTIVA appears to be on a trajectory toward sustainable product manufacturing — greening their orthotic insole materials using bio-sourced and nano-enabled inputs — while retaining their clinical digital health identity from earlier work.

How they like to work

PODOACTIVA has participated in both projects as a consortium member, never as coordinator, suggesting they join research consortia as a specialist industrial contributor rather than as a project driver. Their 45 unique partners across 14 countries from just two projects indicates participation in large, heterogeneous consortia — the kind typical of MSCA-RISE exchanges and large Innovation Actions. They likely contribute clinical validation capacity, end-user access, or product testing capability that academic and research partners cannot provide themselves.

With 45 unique consortium partners across 14 countries from only two projects, PODOACTIVA operates within very large multi-partner consortia typical of EU Innovation Actions and MSCA networks. Their reach is European in scope, though no specific geographic focus is evident from the available data.

What sets them apart

PODOACTIVA occupies an unusual niche: an active clinical company — treating real diabetic patients with custom orthotics — that also participates in applied EU research. Most podiatry-adjacent companies in H2020 are university spin-offs or medical device firms; PODOACTIVA brings direct patient access, product manufacturing experience, and clinical validation capacity in one SME. For consortium builders, they are a credible end-user and industrial testing partner in both digital health and sustainable materials — a combination that is hard to find elsewhere.

Highlights from their portfolio

• STANDUP
  Directly addresses PODOACTIVA's core business by combining smartphone thermal imaging with orthotic insole design to prevent diabetic foot ulcers — a strong example of a company doing research that feeds straight back into its own clinical practice.
• INN-PRESSME
  Their largest funded project (EUR 209,562) and a significant strategic shift: joining a 14-country open-innovation consortium on nano-enabled bio-based materials signals ambitions well beyond their original podiatry niche.