Project description
New laser scheme enables more powerful proton accelerators
Proton accelerators generate high-energy proton beams for a wide range of applications, including cancer treatment. Proton accelerators employing high-power lasers could deliver higher doses of radiation in extremely short time periods (on the nanosecond scale) compared to conventional ones. The key obstacle to their wider implementation is the wide dispersion of the laser-driven proton beams. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the HLPA project aims to tackle this issue by testing a novel arrangement enabling ultrahigh laser pulse intensities (a petawatt-class laser). The proposed scheme will enable tailoring the spatial and spectral profile of the beam at the source.
Objective
Proton accelerators are in significant demand due to their widespread societal applications, for instance clinical cancer therapy, as the protons target deep-seated tumours with negligible damage to the surrounding healthy tissues. High capital and operational costs associated with the conventional accelerators make proton therapy poorly accessible, which has triggered interest in search for affordable alternatives. In this context, proton acceleration employing high power lasers has recently emerged as a promising alternative to the conventional techniques. In addition to their compactness and cost effectiveness, the laser-driven sources deliver high doses in an extremely short-time period (one billionth of the second), offering a unique prospect for radiobiological studies. The key challenge, however, is to overcome broad energy spread and large divergence of the laser-driven proton beams. This project aims to control these shortcomings by employing a novel target arrangement at PW class laser, which can effectively tailor the spatial and spectral profile of the beam at the source, importantly at high repetition rate (1 Hz). Transporting the beams to large distances away from the laser interaction region will be demonstrated by using a system of magnets, as a step towards building dedicated beamlines for multidisciplinary applications. The high-quality proton beams with energies required for therapeutic applications ( > 50MeV) will be deployed, for the first time, in in-vitro radiobiological studies on cancer breast cells at dose rate of ~ 100 Gy/min. The timeliness of the project is underpinned by the on-going developments of high-power laser facilities globally, e.g. the pillars of the pan-European Extreme Light Infrastructure, EPAC (UK), and ZEUS (USA). Notably, this cutting edge research would reinforce Europe's leading role in the development of 'all-optical' accelerators and and position me at the forefront of this emerging field.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- natural sciences physical sciences optics laser physics
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
182 21 Praha 8
Czechia
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.