“Austrian research centers GmbH - ARC” is Austria’s largest extra-university research centre in applied research and development. ARC cooperates with researchers at universities and other institutions of higher education or research nationally and internationally, and Austria's most important enterprises are partners or shareholders of ARC. The responsible ARC division, Biomedical Engineering, has been involved in R&D on assistive technologies and medical research since 1994. One of the divisions´ leading business units is "Smart Biomedical Systems”, which consists of two research groups “Cardiology & Hemodynamics” and “Rehabilitation & Inclusion”. The “Rehabilitation & Inclusion” research group will participate in the M•POWER project.

Relevant skills/experience/technologies:
Main topics addressed by this multi-disciplinary group are usability research, customized input devices, system development, and telematic services for rehabilitation applications. Success criterion of each project and activity is user involvement, which is resulting from operation of a network of information, testing and demonstration centres for rehabilitation technology. This business unit is strongly connected to national and international research initiatives (RESNA, AAATE, etc.) and also have rich experience in international research collaborations (e.g. CEC funded projects AUTONOMY, RESORT, SMILE).ARC Rehabilitation & Inclusion

Role in the project:
ARC will be responsible for WP4 (Interoperability), it’s main goal is to develop middleware supporting interoperability. In addition ARC will contribute to the WP7 Pilot Evaluation.

Interest in project results:
Main interest in results of M•POWER is the use of the M•POWER framework for future development and research projects/products for elderly and cognitive disabled. The M•POWER affords an opportunity to ARC to improve and gain know-how in this field.