Heart failure (HF) is a pandemic currently affecting up to 15 million people in Europe. It is a complex clinical syndrome presenting with impaired heart function and is associated with poor quality of life for patients and high healthcare costs. There is a high clinical demand for novel artificial intelligence (AI) tools which will facilitate risk stratification, early diagnosis, and disease progression assessment in HF. Such tools are essential to allow prompt initiation of evidence-based prevention and treatment strategies which will improve patient quality of life, reduce morbidity and mortality and the HF burden on healthcare. STRATIFYHF aims to develop, validate and implement the first AI-based, decision support system (DSS) for risk stratification, early diagnosis, and disease progression assessment in HF to accommodate both primary and secondary care clinical needs. The DSS will integrate patient-specific demographic and clinical data using existing and novel technologies and establish AI-based tools for risk stratification and HF prediction using machine learning. Additionally, a mobile app will be developed to empower patients to better manage their condition, and health care professionals to make informed decision in selection of evidence-based HF prevention and treatment strategies. Our multidisciplinary consortium, including three small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and two stakeholder organisations, will be guided by medical advice and regulatory and health technology experts to deliver the DSS as a medical class 2b device, reaching TRL 8 by the end of the project. STARTIFYHF will change the way in which HF is diagnosed today and thereby improve the quality and length of patients’ lives and lead to efficient and sustainable healthcare systems by reducing the number of HF-related hospital admissions and unnecessary referrals from primary to secondary care in Europe and beyond.

DECODE will focus on the training of young scientists on the use of drug-eluting devices to combat the burden of peripheral artery disease (PAD). DECODE will provide young researchers with excellent scientific, technological and complementary skills through a multidisciplinary training programme having as an outmost scientific aim the development, optimization, and assessment of a drug eluting balloon system for the improved treatment of PAD. The aim of DECODE is twofold: a) to enhance the competitiveness and research careers of young researchers at European level as after the completion of the programme they will be able to face current and future challenges on the domain of biomedical engineering, b) to convert knowledge, ideas and expertise from both the academic and non-academic sectors into a novel product which will improve the monitoring and treatment of patients suffering from PAD and their quality of life, providing thus a significant economic and social benefit.

Despite advances in diagnosis and therapy, glioblastoma (GBM) remains one of the most challenging cancers to treat, with overall survival under two years and a five-year survival rate of just 5%. This poor prognosis stems from three key factors: anatomical barriers, biological heterogeneity, immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). GlioZERO will establish a network of scientists with expertise in drug delivery, immunology, neurosurgery, robotics, and computational sciences to design microstructured polymeric films (microGRID) enabling deep, uniform, and sustained release of various therapeutic agents at the tumor margins; assess the efficacy of multimodal therapies in rigorous GBM models, leveraging microGRID to overcome anatomical barriers and systemic toxicity; improve surgical resection through intraoperative AI-assisted imaging; and employ advanced biological mapping to identify post-surgical TME alterations driving recurrence. To achieve these objectives, GlioZERO will bring together two EU Research Institutions, specialized in drug delivery, robotics, imaging (IIT) and brain cancer biology (Curie); two EU Enterprises, with expertise in neurosurgery (HUM) and computational modeling (BioIRC); four world-renowned US institutions advancing various therapies against GBM, including targeted therapies and immunotherapies (Stanford), oncolytic viruses (MD Anderson), anti-epileptic therapies (UCSF), and image-guided surgical therapies (BWH); and a Japanese partner (KU), focused on nano-therapies. Through interdisciplinary, intersectoral, and international secondments, GlioZERO will train a new generation of EU scientists, develop a novel class of drug delivery systems, and identify more effective therapies against GBM. Finally, partnerships with biotech accelerators in Silicon Valley, the Texas Medical Center, and the Greater Boston area will instill an entrepreneurial mindset and accelerate the clinical translation of GlioZERO discoveries and technologies.