As its Horizon Europe project concludes, SMARTSHAPE is advancing a battery-free sensor system designed to support continuous, personalised blood-pressure monitoring.

Galway, Ireland — 20 October 2026 — Blood pressure changes throughout the day and night, yet treatment decisions are often based on occasional readings that capture only a few moments in time. As the EU-funded SMARTSHAPE project approaches its conclusion, its consortium is preparing the next stage of development for a technology designed to move beyond these snapshots towards continuous, beat-by-beat blood-pressure information.

SMARTSHAPE is developing a miniature, battery-free sensor that is placed just beneath the skin near the radial artery at the wrist. An external wearable reader energises the sensor, receives its response and converts this into continuous blood-pressure data.

Prof. William Wijns speaking at the SMARTSHAPE consortium meeting

Project coordinator Prof. William Wijns mentions: “Our consortium is very proud to have successfully developed a very tiny blood pressure sensor that can provide accurate and high density blood pressure measurements. And what we’re particularly proud of is that the same sensor can be used subcutaneously in very sick, high-risk patients, and as a wearable device in patients who need ongoing monitoring but are at lower risk.”

The long-term ambition is to provide a clinically focused monitoring option for people whose hypertension is difficult to control, as well as high-risk patients including those living with cardiovascular or kidney disease and patients following stroke.

“Blood pressure is not a static number,” said David Connolly, Cardiovascular Research Programme Manager at the University of Galway. “A conventional measurement tells us what is happening at one particular moment. SMARTSHAPE is designed to capture the wider picture: how blood pressure changes over time, during daily life, and potentially in periods that are not currently well represented by occasional readings.”

David Connolly presenting at the SMARTSHAPE consortium meeting

The project has brought together expertise in materials science, sensor engineering, preclinical testing, patient engagement, regulatory strategy, manufacturing and commercialisation. The consortium has refined the sensor’s design to improve repeatability, robustness and manufacturing consistency, while developing reader hardware and software to calibrate, filter, visualise and record data.

In a nearly 3-month preclinical study, SMARTSHAPE’s sensor demonstrated clinically relevant accuracy when compared with an arterial-line reference according to the ISO80160-3 for continuous monitoring. At day 84, the technology achieved a mean difference of 2 mmHg and a standard deviation of 7 mmHg – both within the ISO 81060-3 accuracy criteria of no more than 6 mmHg and 10 mmHg, respectively. The consortium is now focused on the next challenge: translating this performance into a complete system suitable for future clinical evaluation.

Patient and clinician input has helped shape that system from the outset. The SMARTSHAPE Patient Experience Panel has contributed to the design of the patient app and clinician dashboard, while also highlighting the importance of meaningful data, clear consent and patient control over who can access sensitive health information.

One concept that resonated particularly strongly was “time on target”: the proportion of time that a person’s blood pressure remains within an appropriate range. Rather than relying only on isolated values, continuous monitoring could eventually help patients and care teams understand trends and relate them to medication, sleep, activity and everyday life.

Ciarán Duffy at the SMARTSHAPE consortium meeting

“As we move beyond the Horizon Europe project, the focus is on creating a viable route to adoption,” said Ciarán Duffy, SMARTSHAPE Commercial Lead. “That means not only further developing the technology, but also ensuring it can be manufactured reliably, fit into clinical workflows, meet regulatory requirements and demonstrate genuine clinical utility.”

The next phase of SMARTSHAPE will include further miniaturisation of the external reader, manufacturing scale-up, regulatory work and clinical trials. The consortium has already secured additional funding to continue the technology’s development.

While the preclinical results provide an important foundation, SMARTSHAPE emphasises that future clinical studies will be needed to establish whether continuous, beat-by-beat information can improve clinical decisions and patient outcomes.

About SMARTSHAPE

SMARTSHAPE is an EU-funded collaboration of eight European partners, led by the University of Galway Smart Sensors Laboratory. The project is developing a novel medical device for long-term, continuous blood-pressure monitoring, with the ambition of supporting more personalised and effective hypertension management.

The SMARTSHAPE project runs from December 2022 to November 2026 and has received funding from the European Union under grant agreement No. 101092242.