The Research and Development Unit (R&D) was established in 2012 at The Spinal Cord Injury Center of Western Denmark (VCR) at Viborg Hospital. A main goal of R&D is to facilitate that The Spinal Cord Injury Center of Western Denmark in nearest future becomes a University Clinic.

In our in- and outpatient clinic the treatment of spinal cord injury focuses on the prevention of further injury and on the empowerment of the spinal cord injured persons to return to an active and productive life, although the perfect cure at the moment seems impossible. Thus, because current treatment procedures are only partially effective, and because improvement rates are modest when the looking glass are positioned half a year after the injury took place, there is an imminent need for the development of new therapeutic strategies and for the critical view upon existing methods in neurorehabilitation. With that in mind we strive to improve motor control and to restore sensory functioning. Furthermore, we want to improve pain control and to better manage spasticity.

The following items form our research questions:

• Can we reduce the immediate damage and the delayed worsening after acute spinal cord injury?
• Can we prevent the actual and unpredictable future complications after spinal cord injury?
• Can we provide better treatment based on gained knowledge regarding both processes in the organization of neuro-rehabilitation, include perspectives of the SCI patient and the significant relatives?
• Can we develop technical solutions for the application of neurostimulation and better obtain neuroplasticity in the brain and spinal cord, and in the peripheral nervous system?
• Can robotics add to improvement of future ability?

We have set three tracks of strategy to obtain our goals, three main research fields that can interact and self-fertilize and be brought out in both national and international established research and development networks:

• “Train Smarter” applying new techniques, such as blood-flow restricted exercise, external and internal neurostimulation of peripheral and central nervous system. Development of user-friendly, interactive robotics and exoskeletons, pacemaker-systems, like LION (The Possover Procedure), improving neurostimulation paradigms.  
  
  
• “Life as a person living with the consequences of spinal cord injury”: improving inclusion, reduce isolation and deroute, further develop mentor-mentee projects, involvement/engagement of significant others, process oriented research.
  
  
• Long-term consequences of spinal cord injury, nerve damage and inactivity: pain, spasticity, decubitus, autonomic dysfunction, cardiovascular and renal disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, malnutrition. Nordic collaboration on NordicSCIR, a supernational database.