Metastatic bone cancer is an incurable disease and one of the most complex cancers to treat. Due to the high dose, tumour imaging is currently performed at the beginning and end of standard particle radio-therapy (PRT), making personalised treatment difficult. The main goal of BoneOscopy is to develop a radically new technology to enable informed medical decisions by monitoring bone cancer on a daily basis during PRT. At the heart of BoneOscopy is the ability to detect prompt gamma (PGs) emitted by cancer during PRT and separate them from healthy tissue, unlocking the full potential of spectroscopic analysis without the need for additional dose. The development of a highly specialised detection and collimation system will enable accurate spectroscopic analysis of a very small volume or region within the cancer. As the number of PRT centres grows, we anticipate that within 10 years BoneOscopy will benefit all patients treated with proton and carbon ions. The objectives of BoneOscopy will be achieved by its interdisciplinary consortium, which brings together six partners from five European countries with key expertise in bioengineering and PRT (DKFZ), medical physics and engineering (CSIC), fast electronics for PRT (LIP), Monte Carlo simulations and clinical PRT experience (THM), turnkey software for high performance medical devices (Cosylab) and EU project management, communication and dissemination (accelCH). If achieved, the proposed science-to-technology breakthrough will have a transformative impact on current cancer treatment by providing a safe, personalised and quantitative measure of daily treatment efficacy, thereby contributing to the global fight against cancer. In summary, BoneOscopy will lead to a significant reduction in the health burden in Europe and worldwide, improved quality of life for patients, reduced costs for healthcare systems and improved sustainability of healthcare.

Antiprotons, stored and cooled at low energies in a storage ring or at rest in traps, are highly desirable for the investigation of basic questions on fundamental interactions, the static structure of antiprotonic atoms, CPT tests by high-resolution spectroscopy on antihydrogen, as well as gravity experiments. Antimatter experiments are at the cutting edge of science. They are, however, very difficult to realize and have been limited by the performance of the only existing facility in the world, the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) at CERN. The Extra Low Energy Antiproton ring (ELENA) will be a critical upgrade to this unique facility and commissioned from summer 2016. This will significantly enhance the beam quality and enable new experiments. To fully exploit the discovery potential of this facility and to pave the way for a vibrant long-term physics program with low energy antiprotons, advances are urgently required in numerical tools that can adequately model beam transport, life time and interaction, beam diagnostics tools and detectors that can fully characterize the beam’s properties, as well as in into advanced experimental techniques for improved precision and novel experiments that exploit the enhanced beam quality that ELENA will provide. AVA is a new European training network between universities, research centers and industry that will carry out an interdisciplinary and cross-sector antimatter research and training program for a cohort of 15 Fellows. It targets new scientific and technical developments and aims at boosting the career prospects of all trainees.

The RAPTORplus consortium gathers excellent research institutions, academic hospitals and non-academic particle therapy (PT) centres, industrial corporations and public organisations. It offers a platform for intercultural, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral training and education of doctoral candidates (DCs) in the field of medical physics focussing on right-time adaptive PT. The assembled infrastructure and expertise from academia, clinic and industry is needed to address the challenges of personalised adaptive PT. PT is a precise form of radiotherapy with a growing number of centres treating patients. It targets localised cancers while sparing healthy tissue, but might deliver suboptimal doses in case of anatomical changes. To exploit the full potential of PT, fast and safe online treatment adaptations must be enabled and performed if beneficial, e.g. indicated by image-based biomarkers, biological models or other response data. The research projects conducted at academic and non-academic facilities will tackle (1) the efficient realisation of online-adaptive PT (OAPT), (2) the technological completion for broad and safe use of OAPT, and (3) a further treatment personalisation by biomarker-based adaptation. The network uses a multi-sectoral approach to ensure that the DCs develop scientific, clinical and practical industry-relevant skills. The holistic training programme includes in-person training camps, online trainings, project-specific secondments, training in tutoring, research communication, entrepreneurship and science policy, and opportunities to participate in international conferences and professional networks. RAPTORplus will train the next generation of research leaders, medical physicists and entrepreneurs to be aware of the necessity of right-time adaptive PT. They will drive innovation in the coming era of adaptive PT and improve cancer care through enduring international and cross-sectoral collaborations based on their transformative thinking.

The main purpose of the HEARTS-HOP proposal is to provide to the HEARTS project standardized tools and instruments for dosimetry and user experimentation and lifecycle management throughout and by the end of the HEARTS project. These developments carried out by Cosylab will provide a significant boost to the activities of preparation of the facilities at CERN and GSI so that they can achieve the foreseen TRL6-7 and, at the same time, pave the way for reaching an even higher TRL right after the project. As a first objective, tools that allow users to have control of the beam during experimentation by acting on a single centralized interface will improve the quality of the service provided at each facility and potentilly increase the scientific and insustrial throughput. Finally, the user lifecycle tool will also boost the TRL of the all HEARTS initiative at a global service level.

The IFIGENEIA Excellence Hub aspires to introduce, develop and deliver the complete design study and the precise business plan for the implementation in Europe of the LINear ACcelerator (LINAC) technology in radiation therapy, diagnostic and theranostic procedures. Linear Accelerator technologies offer a unique, compact, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly solution for sustainable production, management, accessibility, and promotion of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging technologies. Unlike current radioisotope production methods, mostly reliant on older nuclear reactors using highly enriched uranium with associated concerns about global availability, safety, and environmental issues, or on cyclotrons limited to a narrow range of radioisotopes, LINACs enable the production of a broader range due to their tunability in energy, targets, and currents. The IFIGENEIA Excellence Hub aims to create the complete design and implementation study for a cutting-edge LINAC facility in the Balkans, by creating in Greece, Slovenia and Cyprus Excellence Hubs dedicated to developing and implement a LINAC-based facility, capable of producing a diverse range of marketable radioisotopes. Interconnected Hubs will collaboratively pursue national and international partnerships to achieve shared strategic goals and improve value chains. The project focuses on a cross-border R&I strategy, an investment plan, and implementing innovative products and services across the hubs. Each Hub will unite regional stakeholders in healthcare, culture, academia, businesses, public sectors, and societal actors, working toward sustainable nuclear medicine and culture in their regions. IFIGENEIA aims to incubate future excellence hubs in the West Balkan region and will provide mentoring to West Balkan countries in the current project. In collaboration with esteemed research centers, IFIGENEIA can create a lasting technological and business framework for nuclear medicine in Europe.