Located at the heart of the Kerpape Rehabilitation Center, CoWork’HIT is a key player in France for innovation in the field of disability. As a hub for innovation, expertise, and resources, it supports companies, healthcare and medical-social facilities, associations, and project leaders in developing solutions that promote independence. Through its activities, it also helps shape a sector that is still emerging in France, focusing on technologies and services dedicated to disability and loss of independence.
An interview with Anne-Claude Lefebvre, director of CoWork’HIT, and Willy Allègre, technical director of CoWork’HIT and Lab Coordinator at the Kerpape Center, on the European trends currently driving projects in Brittany.
The ACE Project: Paving the Way for the Future of Home Care
CoWork’HIT is a partner, alongside Biotech Santé Bretagne, in the European ACE project funded by the Interreg North Sea program. This project brings together 13 partners from six North Sea countries: Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
Its goal is clear: to accelerate innovation for the home care of tomorrow. Faced with an aging population and growing demand from seniors who wish to remain in their homes, healthcare systems must develop new solutions to address the shortage of professionals and improve support services.
The first phase of the project involved jointly identifying priority needs and technological opportunities for future home care and support. Thus, caregivers, support workers, people with disabilities or reduced independence, innovative companies, local authorities, and other stakeholders were brought together to identify the main challenges of home care and seek solutions, as well as to compare practices across the European partner regions.
European trials conducted in Brittany
The ACE project is currently in its acceleration phase and will be completed in June 2026. In Brittany, CoWork’HIT is coordinating the organization of transnational trials, which allow innovations developed elsewhere in Europe to be tested in real-world home care settings in a partner country. In total, nearly 30 trials are currently underway, including five in Brittany led by CoWork’HIT:
- TwinSkin (Belgium): a solution developed by the company Dermatoo for remote wound monitoring. The solution will be tested in collaboration with the Aven Home Healthcare Service in Etel. Working groups involving healthcare professionals have helped define the scope of the trial to assess the solution’s benefits compared to current practices.
- Helpsoq (Netherlands): a device that facilitates the application of compression stockings. Teams at the Kerpape center have been trained, and a field test will be conducted with the center’s professionals and patients.
- Easy Wheely (Netherlands): a set of small, customizable wheels that can be adapted to wheelchairs to improve agility, independence, and obstacle navigation. A working group was organized with patients and professionals from Kerpape to evaluate the device’s intended use and initial acceptability.
- Kinetic Analysis (Netherlands): Smart textile equipped with chest and abdominal sensors to accurately measure respiratory functions. Focus groups bringing together patients and professionals from Kerpape facilitated discussions on use cases.
- Smart Floor (Netherlands): A floor covering that analyzes gait to predict the risk of falls and detect changes over time. A partnership is currently being established with the Groupement hospitalier de Bretagne Sud to test the solution.
In this context, CoWork’HIT draws on its recognized expertise in usability testing, real-world trials, and impact studies. This approach also helps promote innovative French and Breton companies within a European context.
Anne-Claude Lefebvre, Director of CoWork’HIT, and Willy Allègre, Technical Director of CoWork’HIT
The final phase of the project will involve identifying the adjustments needed to integrate these solutions into home care and support pathways, for example in terms of interoperability between solutions, integration into facilities’ specialized software, or training for professionals to facilitate the adoption of these innovations.
A closing event will be held next May in Antwerp to share the project’s results.
The European Rehab-Lab Network
Another key development: the growth of the Rehab-Lab community.
A Rehab-Lab is a FabLab integrated into a healthcare or medical-social facility, where patients, occupational therapists, and technical specialists work together to design and manufacture customized assistive devices using 3D printing.
The concept originated about ten years ago at the Kerpape Rehabilitation Center. Today, there are more than 90 similar facilities across Europe. CoWork’HIT, which is based at Kerpape, has played a major role in accelerating the growth of this network, particularly through several European projects focused on sharing best practices.
Building on this experience, CoWork’HIT has developed a dedicated range of services:
- training for professionals,
- support for the creation of Rehab-Labs within facilities,
- assistance with regulatory issues, as certain products may fall under the category of medical devices.
By the end of 2025, a web platform—REHAB-LAB+—for monitoring and ensuring regulatory compliance of assistive devices for people with disabilities had been rolled out in France and across Europe, and an extension to cover other types of medical devices in healthcare facilities is also currently being rolled out (in collaboration with Brest University Hospital).
In 2023, Willy Allègre also participated in a mission to Brussels organized by Biotech Santé Bretagne focused on medical device regulations, an experience he highlights as particularly enriching for exchanging ideas with other industry stakeholders.
Kerpape is strengthening its European presence
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The Kerpape Rehabilitation Center is also actively pursuing a European strategy. Several projects have already been carried out to promote the Rehab-Lab model, including two DigitalHealthEurope projects led by Kerpape with support from Biotech Santé Bretagne.
Currently, the facility is involved in an Erasmus+ project dedicated to sharing professional practices regarding support and social participation for people with disabilities. This project brings together companies, rehabilitation centers, and universities to exchange ideas on the most innovative methods and approaches.
For Willy Allègre, the support provided by Biotech Santé Bretagne (BSB) is a key driver in these European initiatives: “BSB’s support on European projects is essential. It enables us to monitor the landscape, target the right calls for proposals, and also assist with drafting and positioning applications. At Kerpape, BSB has helped us identify the project formats that are relevant to our organization.”
Through these European projects, CoWork’HIT and the Kerpape center reaffirm Brittany’s leading role in innovation for disability support, independence, and home care, while strengthening collaborations among healthcare stakeholders at the European level.
Photos for this article: Sonia Lorec, Photographer
(Translated with DeepL.com)
Published on 22/05/2026
