Project description
Towards on-site radioisotopes production for cancer care
The artificial radioisotopes (ARIs) used to diagnose and fight cancer are often produced in large and overbooked facilities. This creates supply tension for medical research as isotopes production relies on a limited number of centralised facilities. The EIC-funded EUROPA project aims to harness laser-plasma acceleration (LPA) to produce ARIs for medical research by providing an early-stage production facility that enables medical teams to access high-quality isotopes more easily. EUROPA will complement nuclear facilities dedicated to the production of specific radioisotopes with a versatile tool capable of producing a wide range of innovative radioisotopes. This project is a first step towards the long-term goal of using LPA for the on-demand, large scale production of ARIs as close to patients as possible.
Objective
EUROPA envisions an innovative Artificial Radioisotope (ARI) production facility based on laser-plasma acceleration (LPA), leveraging its versatility to produce innovative radiopharmaceuticals for diagnosing and treating a wide range of cancers. For the first time, EUROPA will demonstrate that LPA can produce ARIs with sufficient activity (in Bq) and quality for medical research. This enables compact, easy-to-deploy ARI production units suitable for deployment in hospitals, offering a wide range of ARIs.
Nuclear medicine is increasingly favored for cancer diagnosis and treatment, due to far fewer side effects than chemotherapy. However, it requires extensive preclinical investigations to study a broad array of ARIs to treat various types of cancer. Currently, ARIs are produced by a limited number of nuclear reactors and accelerators that cannot meet the rising demand for novel isotopes in nuclear medicine. LPA offers a highly versatile source of radiation (gamma rays) and particles (ions and neutrons) across a broad energy spectrum, making it a promising approach for generating the moderate activity levels required for innovative radiopharmaceutical applications. To demonstrate this potential, EUROPA focuses on two innovative pairs of theranostic ARI: 61Cu/67Cu and 43Sc/47Sc.
The project aims to optimize LPA mechanisms to enhance the yield of accelerated particles within the desired energy range, while developing dedicated detectors to support proof-of-concept experiments for radioisotope production. Furthermore, EUROPA investigates ways to increase the laser repetition rate, thereby improving the average particle current—an essential step toward transitioning from scientific proof to technological application. Bringing together top experts in radiopharmaceuticals, LPA physics, nuclear science, and high-intensity lasers, EUROPA offers a disruptive, scalable ARI production technology, compact, easy to operate and dismantle, unlocking new applications and markets.
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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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.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
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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.
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2025-PATHFINDEROPEN
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91120 Palaiseau
France
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