Final Report Summary - PARTNER (Particle Training Network for European Radiotherapy)
The PARTNER project is a multidisciplinary training platform whose aim is to create future professionals –coming from different fields of expertise- in particle therapy for fighting cancer. The project started on October 1st, 2008, and ended on September 30th, 2012.
It involved 10 institutes working on research in particle therapy (CERN, CNAO, GSI, UKL-HD(HIT), Karolinska Institut, University of Surrey, TERA, MedAustron, Etoile, IFIC) and 2 leading companies in the same field (IBA, SIEMENS).
The project involved and trained for different periods of time 29 researchers in total (between ESRs and ERs). The name and information of the researchers with their status (ER and ESR), and their working period within the PARTNER project are listed in the following:
Last name -- First name -- Institution -- From -- To -- Months -- ESR/ER
Abler -- Daniel -- CERN -- 01/07/09 -- 30/06/12 -- 36 -- ESR
Barazzuol -- Lara -- UNIS -- 01/01/09 -- 4/1/2012 -- 36 -- ESR
Bohlen -- Till Tobias -- CERN -- 01/12/08 -- 30/11/11 -- 36 -- ESR
Chen -- Wenjing -- Siemens -- 02/11/09 -- 30/09/12 -- 35 -- ESR
Chew -- Ming Tsuey -- UNIS -- 03/08/09 -- 31/07/12 -- 36 -- ESR
Desplanques -- Maxime -- CNAO -- 6/08/11 -- 30/09/12 -- 13.5 -- ESR
Esmaili Torshabi -- Ahmad -- CNAO -- 01/09/09 -- 31/03/11 -- 19 -- ESR
Garonna -- Adriano -- TERA -- 01/12/11 -- 30/09/12 -- 10 -- ER
Gora -- Joanna -- MedAustron -- 01/09/09 -- 31/08/12 -- 36 -- ESR
Grevillot -- Loic -- IBA -- 01/01/09 -- 30/09/11 -- 33 -- ESR
Hegazy -- Neamat -- MedAustron -- 01/06/11 -- 30/09/12 -- 16 -- ER
Kanellopoulos -- Vassiliki -- CERN -- 01/04/09 -- 31/03/12 -- 36 -- ESR
Lazzeroni -- Marta -- KI -- 12/01/09 -- 31/12/11 -- 36 -- ESR
Martino -- Giovanna -- GSI -- 01/12/08 -- Maternity leave -- 36 -- ESR
Mohanty -- Chitralekha -- KI -- 12/01/09 -- 31/12/11 -- 36 -- ESR
Osorio Moreno -- Jhonnatan -- CNAO -- 01/10/09 -- 30/09/12 -- 36 -- ESR
Roman -- Faustin -- CERN -- 01/04/09 -- 31/03/12 -- 36 -- ESR
Sanchez-Parcerisa -- Daniel -- Siemens -- 01/09/09 -- 31/08/12 -- 36 -- ESR
Santiago Alina -- CNAO -- 01/07/12 -- 31/09/12 -- 3 -- ER
Simoniello -- Palma -- GSI -- 01/09/11 -- 30/09/12 -- 13 -- ER
Sommerer -- Florian -- HIT -- 01/06/09 -- 32/05/11 -- 24 -- ER
Srivastava -- Anurita -- CNAO -- 01/11/10 -- 30/09/12 -- 23 -- ER
Tinganelli -- Walter -- GSI -- 03/01/09 -- 31/12/11 -- 36 -- ESR
Tuan -- Jeffrey -- CNAO -- 01/10/10 -- 30/09/12 -- 24 -- ER
Verdú Andrés -- Silvia -- TERA -- 01/04/09 -- 31/03/12 -- 36 -- ESR
Watts -- David -- TERA -- 01/01/09 -- 31/12/11 -- 36 -- ESR
Xiaoli -- Yu -- CNAO -- 04/06/12 -- 30/09/12 -- 4 -- ER
Zambrano -- Valentina -- MedAustron -- 01/09/09 -- 31/08/12 -- 36 -- ESR
Zielinska-Chomej -- Katarzyna -- KI -- 12/01/09 -- 31/12/11 -- 36 -- ESR
All training courses were organized and held by the various institutions of the consortium, as planned in the proposal.
Below is the list of training courses:
2009 IFIC, Valencia (Spain) - Detectors and Accelerators applied to medicine
2009 University of Surrey (UK) - Leadership
2009 GSI, Darmstadt (Germany) - Hands-on Radiobiology
2010 CERN, (Swizerland) - HT Today and Tomorrow; Grid Technology
2010 Karolinska University (KI), Stockholm (Sweden) - Radiobiology
2011 MedAustron, Vienna (Austria) - Treatment Planning
2011 CNAO, Pavia (Italy) - Clinical Trials
2011 University of Surrey (UK) - Mathematical Modeling
2012 CNAO, Pavia (Italy) - Dose Fractionation
2012 CERN (Swizerland) (org. by TERA & CNAO) - Accelerators; Gantries
2012 CNAO, Pavia (Italy) - Imaging in HT; Gantries Impact on HT
The project progressed very well over its four year period and even exceeded the expectations. All the researchers reported new results in their work package programmes and submitted their deliverables in a timely manner. All of them attended international conferences and meetings, where they presented their work in oral presentations or/and in poster sessions.
In addition to training courses, annual project and ENLIGHT meetings were organized. On such occasions all the researchers gave a talk in order to share the latest results of their research with the whole ENLIGHT community. Following is the list of the meetings:
2009 IFIC, Valencia (Spain) - 1st ENLIGHT Meeting
2010 Karolinska University (KI), Stockholm (Sweden) - 2nd ENLIGHT Meeting, PARTNER MidTerm Review
2011 University Hospital of Marburg, Lahn (Germany) - 3rd ENLIGHT Meeting
2012 CNAO, Pavia (Italy) - 4th ENLIGHT Meeting, PARTNER End-of-project Meeting
The PARTNER project achieved its main objective to train young researchers in order for them to become experts in the growing field of radiotherapy in general, and hadron therapy in particular. The field requires knowledge and expertise in accelerators and detector physics, radiobiology, medical physics, imaging, and computing.
PARTNER – together with the ENLIGHT network at large - helped to bring together communities that are normally separated (medical doctors, physicists, engineers, biologists, etc.), whose collaboration is training researchers, and developing and enhancing particle therapy for cancer treatment.
The wide range of skills, know-how and training facilities needed for the education of the future generations of hadron therapy experts could not be fully and efficiently covered by an initiative confined to the national boundaries. In this sense the involvement and collaboration of institutions at an European level was extremely important and the results remarkable.
In addition, substantial personal connections and collaboration were created between the PARTNER researchers, which will last beyond the end of the project and will encourage future collaborations between the institutions, research centres, and companies where the researchers have worked and will work.