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UT and Roessingh R&D to intensify collaboration

Roessingh Research and Development (RRD) and the University of Twente (UT) are set to intensify their collaboration.

Miriam Luizink, RRD director, and Ed Brinksma, the UT’s Rector Magnificus, signed a new five-year cooperation agreement. 

RRD and the UT have worked closely together since RRD was founded, 25 years ago. Both conduct research at the cutting edge of technology and medical science and aim to enable people with physical or mental disabilities to live full lives and participate in society, aided by technology. The new cooperation agreement, signed today by both institutes, provides a new boost to the successful collaboration between RRD and UT. By working together, the UT, Roessingh Research and Development and Roessingh Centre for Rehabilitation, cover the entire healthcare system: from the development of fundamental knowledge through to implementation in healthcare and day-to-day patient practice. The significant advantage of this is that it results in technologies and innovations that medical professionals and patients actually need.

Part of the agreement between RRD and the UT will involve more intensive collaboration in the areas of robotics and rehabilitation and E-health. They will also explore the potential for joint initiatives in the field of orthotics and prosthetics, wearable sensor technology integrated within smart clothing and lab-on-a-chip sensing technology.

Under the new agreement, both parties will make efforts to create innovative joint multidisciplinary programmes of national acclaim and to secure external funding for their joint research activities. Agreements were also reached about RRD researchers who wish to obtain doctoral degrees at the UT and about the appointment (possibly part-time) of RRD doctoral candidates at the UT. In addition, the UT will provide RRD with 200,000 euros of annual funding. 

Testing ground

Miriam Luizink, RRD director, is delighted about the collaboration: “For us, the UT is a very important partner in knowledge and technology. Through our joint efforts, we ensure that the technology being developed actually responds to a genuine need in society. We are close neighbours geographically, but also in terms of what we do. With the UT’s help, RRD can continue to develop into a testing ground for patient-related research.” Albert van den Berg, scientific director of the MIRA Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Technical Medicine – where much of the UT's research in medical technology is based – is also pleased to see the UT and RRD intensify their relationship. “Even greater collaboration between the UT and RRD offers promising opportunities to apply scientific and technological research in a state-of-the-art clinical environment and provides inspiration for new research areas from medical practice. By joining forces in this way, we are also tapping into new sources of funding for translational research.” 

Past successes

In recent years, the UT and RRD have collaborated on countless research projects, with external funding reaching millions of euros. Four RRD scientists appointed as part-time professors at the UT have played an instrumental role in strengthening the relationship between the two institutes. Since 2012, 11 RRD researchers have obtained doctoral degrees at the UT and around 20 more are set to follow in their footsteps by 2020. Since 2012, RRD and the UT have jointly published more than 200 scientific articles and 77 UT students have begun graduation projects at RRD.