Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
Digital Europe Programme is the first EU programme that aims to accelerate the recovery and drive the digital transformation of Europe.
Worth €7.6 billion (in current prices), the Programme is a part of the next long-term EU budget, (the Multiannual Financial Framework), and it covers 2021 to 2027. It will provide funding for projects in five crucial areas: supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, and ensuring the wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society.
The Programme is fine-tuned to fill the gap between the research of digital technologies and their deployment, and to bring the results of research to the market – for the benefit of Europe’s citizens and businesses, and in particular SMEs. Investments under the Digital Europe programme supports the Union’s twin objectives of a green transition and digital transformation and strengthens the Union’s resilience and strategic autonomy.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The scope of this call is to develop and experimentally validate in an hospital environment a more precise and faster tool for the study, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of cancer and/or neurological disorders (such as Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis) by enhancing existing MRI systems with quantum enhanced metabolic MRI and AI techniques.
Detailed Call Description
The overall aim of this action is to prepare for the industrialisation and deployment of such emerging systems, with a focus on cancer imaging and/or neurological imaging.
The project will include the deployment of innovative automated polariser systems for quantum enhanced metabolic MRI in at least two research hospitals in two different Member States, working in close collaboration. The project will also underpin the development of one or several AI models for the analysis of metabolic MRI data. To this end the images generated in the course of the project will be collected and annotated.
The project should be designed in in two phases. The start of the second phase should be conditional of the successful completion of the first phase:
Project Phase 1:
- Deployment and validation in a pre-clinical environment of two first-generation polariser systems for the refinement of hyperpolarisation techniques, metabolic agents, MRI sequences, and signal detection to optimise the visualisation of metabolism in a range of tissues with different pathologies.
- Creation of an initial experimental AI model to analyse the MRI images in combination with inputs from other sources and forms of medical analysis, including, where relevant, datasets accessible via the cloud, with a view to developing future diagnostic and treatment selection protocols.
Project Phase 2:
The second phase consists of the deployment and validation in a clinical environment of two second-generation polariser systems and associated AI techniques (including the training of new models if necessary) to investigate tumour growth and disease progression, diagnosis, treatment selection and decision-making, and the evaluation of medical outcomes, as well as evaluate and optimise treatment of cancer and/or neurological diseases.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
50% and 75% (for SMEs)
Maximum grant amount per project: €5.000.000
Thematic Categories
- Health
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Small-Medium Enterprises and Competitiveness
Eligibility for Participation
- Legal Entities
- Other Beneficiaries
- Private Bodies
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
- non-EU countries:
- EEA countries (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein)
- other countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme (list of participating countries)
Targeted stakeholders: This call targets industrial partners (including SMEs), research hospitals, and R&D centres or institutions.
Research hospitals will conduct metabolic MRI studies by relying on established MRI infrastructure combined with innovative polariser systems and AI techniques. Research hospitals will closely collaborate with industrial partners/SMEs who will provide polarisation infrastructure as a service to enable metabolic MRI at both project phases. The service will include the deployment, installation, and servicing of the machine, as well as providing metabolic agents to be polarised. Complementary development of an AI model for the analysis of metabolic MRI data will be performed in a public or private research institution.
Consortium composition: minimum 4 independent applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy
Directorate of Research and Innovation
Eleana Gabriel
Telephone: +357 22 691918
Email: egabriel@dmrid.gov.cy
EU Contact Point
For help related to this call, please visit the following link: Write to us | European Union (europa.eu)