Horizon Europe

Horizon Europe is the world's largest research and innovation programme.

Projects funded by Horizon Europe

HVL is currently participating in these ongoing Horizon Europe projects:

Society, education and labour

Safety, transport and mobility

Sustainability, energy and materials

Health

RAPTORplus - Right-time Adaptive Particle Therapy Of canceR - Personalisation through anatomical plus biological adaptation

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.

Project leader at HVL: Prof. Ilker Meric

More info: Right-time Adaptive Particle Therapy Of canceR - Personalisation through anatomical plus biological adaptation | RAPTORplus | Project | Fact Sheet | HORIZON | CORDIS | European Commission

LABDA – Learning network for Advanced Behavioural Data Analysis

HVL is Associated Partner in the MSCA Doctoral Network project LABDA.

More info: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101072993

NOVO- Next generation imaging for real-time dose verification enabling adaptive proton therapy

The European Commission published in 2021 Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, emphasizing patient-centered cancer care and promoting actions to enable personalised cancer treatment, improve the quality of life of cancer patients and their caregivers, and reduce inequalities in accessing high-quality cancer care across Europe. To meet these ambitious goals, scientific and technological breakthroughs in radiation therapy are needed, in particular for the treatment of radioresistant, hypoxic (oxygen-deprived) tumors associated with low survival rates, involving sophisticated and more accurate radiation dose delivery techniques and enabling personalised dose escalation while ensuring patient safety.

Proton therapy has the potential to offer the most conformal radiation dose to patients, and the number of proton therapy centers around the globe follows a significantly upwards and persisting trend. Adaptive proton therapy, by monitoring and adapting to changes in patient anatomy between treatment fractions, is required to enable safe delivery of proton therapy and to spare healthy tissues. However, truly personalised, dose escalated treatments with proton therapy are not yet possible due to the lack of real-time dose verification technology to truly empower patient-centered cancer treatment, important to improve curation and quality-of-life.

The NOVO (Next generation imaging for real-time dose verification enabling adaptive proton therapy) project aims at making real-time dose verification an integral component of proton therapy -based cancer care in the long-term, allowing precise control over radiation doses delivered to the tumor, as well as preventing unintended exposure of healthy surrounding tissues. We will develop the first proof-of-concept of a groundbreaking real-time dose verification technology adaptable to any proton therapy treatment. The proof-of-concept will be tested under pre-clinical conditions, bringing the envisaged technology concept to Technology Readiness Level 4.

Our high risk/ high gain approach builds on the synergy between: cutting-edge and low-cost organic scintillator technology to detect secondary radiation during treatment for non-invasive measurements; novel and fast image reconstruction algorithms, AI-accelerated models and AI-enhanced image reconstruction to allow simultaneous detection and imaging of multiple radiation species and tissue compositional analysis; tumor-tracking and imaging of tissue radio-sensitivity based on oxygen levels; and intelligent automation of decision-making schemes for real-time dose-guided adaptive therapy. We will also demonstrate technical robustness and trustworthiness of the AI methods used to ensure patient safety and address its effective integration within adaptive therapy clinical workflows.

The NOVO consortium covers the entire value chain of real-time dose verification development (technology providers, theory and modelling, technology integration and testing, and end-users) and will foster transdisciplinary collaborations between nuclear, medical, and high-energy physicists, chemists, mathematicians, computer scientists, oncologists, biologists, as well as European proton therapy centers.

Coordinated by Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (Norway), the NOVO consortium consists of Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Target Systemelektronik and Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems (Germany), Bogazici University (Türkiye), University of Manchester (The United Kingdom) and University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital- Helse Bergen (Norway). The project is led by Ilker Meric.

Starting in March 2024 for a duration of four years, NOVO will receive European Union’s funding of almost 3.8 million € from the European Innovation Council as part of the EIC Pathfinder Open programme, under Horizon Europe. EIC Pathfinder supports the exploration of bold ideas for radically new technologies and finances high-risk / high gain and interdisciplinary cutting-edge science collaborations for technological breakthroughs.  

Contact: novoeic@hvl.no

GELA - Global Evidence, Local Adaptation

The sub-Saharan region in Africa still experiences the highest under-five mortality rate in the world despite improvements since the 1990s. The impact of poor nutrition and poverty-related diseases, including malaria and diarrhea is exacerbated by poor healthcare systems and inequity in access to care. Policy makers and practitioners need evidence-informed guidance on effective clinical care, and they need guidance on how to implement this care efficiently within their health systems.

The GELA project will address these gaps with evidence-informed guideline recommendations for newborn and young child health in three countries – Malawi, Nigeria and South Africa. GELA will increase the capacity of decision makers and researchers to use global research to develop locally relevant guidelines for newborn and child health. GELA focuses on priority topics for each of the participating countries, selected with stakeholders in each country to identify local priorities and capacity needs within newborn and child health. To inform this process, GELA conducted a landscape analysis of existing clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for newborn and child health in these countries.

GELA is coordinated by the South African Medical Research Council and the partners include the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Western Norway University of Applied Science, Stellenbosch University (South Africa), University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (Nigeria), Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (Malawi), Cochrane and the MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation (Norway). The consortium is teaming up with national ministries in Malawi, Nigeria and South Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) and WHO Afro and the civil society group, Peoples Health Movement.

GELA is supported by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) under the EDCTP2 programme (grant number RIA2020S -3303-GELA). EDCTP is a public-public partnership between countries in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

Project leader: https://www.hvl.no/en/employee/?user=Claire.Glenton

More info: Global Evidence, Local Adaptation (GELA) | Cochrane Africa

 

Previous projects

COEMS  

COMETS 

CREATIONS 

DISCEFRN

  • Does standardization matter? Evaluating the potential of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) for reducing employment discrimination faced by immigrants
  • Project leader: Miriam Schmaus
  • Website: cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101065566 

DocTalent4EU

DRES2MARKET 

EERAdata

EMPOWER

  • Design and evaluation of technological support tools to empower stakeholders in digital education
  • Project leader: Ilona Heldal

  • Website: project-empower.eu/ 

INTREPID HEI 

MOVE  

OCEAN

ONESTEP

PIONEERED 

RiskGone

RRI2SCALE

SENSE.

StoRIES

 

Do you want to collaborate with HVL? 

HVL is aiming at increasing its participation in Horizon Europe and we are always looking for new opportunities for cooperation.

Do not hesitate to contact us: 

bilde av Karin Wibrand

Karin Wibrand

Head of Section, Division of Research, Internationalisation and Innovation

Postdoctoral Fellowships