Heavy Ion Therapy Research Integration plus (HITRIplus) is a research project funded by the European Commission. The project, which started on the 1st of April 2021 and has a duration of 4 years, is looking to integrate and propel biophysics and medical research on cancer treatment with heavy ion beams while jointly developing its sophisticated instruments.
Cosylab is leading the Controls and Safety working package with the goal of analysing and determining the best solutions for an upgrade of current and future facilities in terms of performance and cost.
HITRIplus CONTEXT and AMBITION
Heavy ion beams irradiate tumors by focusing on the ill tissue while sparing the healthy part around, more effectively than any other irradiation treatment. The wider objective of HITRIplus is to provide radiation oncologists with a cutting-edge tool to treat the fraction of tumors that are not curable with X-rays or protons or have better survival rates or lower recurrences with ions.
For this major initiative, HITRIplus has gathered a consortium engaging all relevant stakeholders and for the first time bringing together all four European ion therapy centres with leading EU industries, academia, and research laboratories. They all share the ambition to jointly build a strong pan-European Heavy Ion Therapy Research Community. A strategic partner is the South East European International Institute for Sustainable Technologies, which federates eight countries in South East Europe with the ambition to build a next-generation heavy-ion Research Infrastructure in the area.
HITRIplus Transnational Access will integrate and open to external researchers the experimental programme of the five European facilities providing therapeutic ion beams. Its Networks will structure and foster the research on heavy ion therapy, including clinical and pre-clinical research. Joint Research Activities will develop new accelerator and beam delivery technologies to extend the reach of the present generation centres and define a new European reference design, at lower cost and dimensions, to make cancer ion therapy more accessible and to open new markets to European industry.
Project website: https://www.hitriplus.eu/
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101008548. This announcement reflects only the author’s view, and the Commission is not responsible for any use that is made of the information it contains.