The increasing amount and availability of collected data (cancer imaging) and the development of novel technological tools based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), provide unprecedented opportunities for better cancer detection and classification, image optimization, radiation reduction, and clinical workflow enhancement. The INCISIVE project aims to address three major open challenges in order to explore the full potential of AI solutions in cancer imaging: (1) AI challenges unique to medical imaging, (2) Image labelling and annotation and (3) Data availability and sharing. In order to do that INCISIVE plans to develop and validate: (1) an AI-based toolbox that enhances the accuracy, specificity, sensitivity, interpretability and cost-effectiveness of existing cancer imaging methods, (2) an automated-ML based annotation mechanism to rapidly produce training data for machine learning research and (3) a pan-European repository federated repository of medical images, that will enable the secure donation and sharing of data in compliance with ethical, legal and privacy demands, increasing accessibility to datasets and enabling experimentation of AI-based solutions. The INCISIVE models and analytics will utilize various cancer imaging scans, biological data and EHRs, and will be trained with 1 PB of available data provided by 8 partners within the project. INCISIVE solution will be investigated in four validation studies for Breast, Prostate, Colorectal and Lung Cancer, taking place in 8 pilot sites, from 5 countries (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Serbia and Spain), with participation of at least 2,600 patients and a total duration of 1.5 year. INCISIVE moves beyond the state of the art, by improving sensitivity and specificity of lower cost scanning methods, accurately predicting the tumor spread, evolution and relapse, enhancing interpretability of results and “democratizing” imaging data.

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.

Primary prevention of cancer through behaviour changes in adolescence – a critical period in which many risk behaviours are initiated –, is a huge health and societal challenge in Europe. In alignment with this need, SUNRISE will co-create, implement and evaluate an innovative digitally-enhanced life-skills programme for primary prevention of cancer through sustainable health behaviour change in adolescents, tailored to their socio-economic, cultural and environmental diversities. SUNRISE will combine an established, evidence-based digital solution for smoking prevention, with novel intervention approaches such as peer social media campaigns, advertising literacy training, educational games, and social robot platforms, to take cancer prevention approaches for adolescents in the EU to the next level. The digitally-enhanced programme and its components will be developed through co-creation with schools-as-living-labs methods involving multiple societal actors such as educators, adolescents, parents, public health experts, and policy-makers. The programme will be implemented and evaluated at large scale across 154 schools and 7500 students in urban and rural regions of 8 European countries - Greece, Switzerland, Slovenia, Spain, Cyprus, Italy, Belgium, Romania -, including socially disadvantaged groups such as migrants and ethnic minorities. The effectiveness of both methods for achieving long-term health behaviour change, as well as the implementation strategy for solution adoption and multi-country sustainability, will be evaluated. This action is part of the Cancer Mission cluster of projects on “Prevention & early detection (behavioural change).

The main objective of the Project is to create a GATEKEEPER, that connects healthcare providers, businesses, entrepreneurs, elderly citizens and the communities they live in, in order to originate an open, trust-based arena for matching ideas, technologies, user needs and processes, aimed at ensuring healthier independent lives for the ageing populations. By 2022, GATEKEEPER will be embodied in an open source, European, standard-based, interoperable and secure framework available to all developers, for creating combined digital solutions for personalised early detection and interventions that (i) harness the next generation of healthcare and wellness innovations; (ii) cover the whole care continuum for elderly citizens, including primary, secondary and tertiary prevention, chronic diseases and co-morbidities; (iii) straightforwardly fit “by design” with European regulations, on data protection, consumer protection and patient protection (iv) are subjected to trustable certification processes; (iv) support value generation through the deployment of advanced business models based on the VBHC paradigm. GATEKEEPER will demonstrate its value by scaling up, during a 51-months work plan, towards the deployment of solutions that will involve ca 40.000 elderly citizens, supply and demand side (authorities, institutions, companies, associations, academies) in 8 regional communities, from 7 EU member states.