PROJECT STRUCTURE

Work Package 1

This work package provides effective overall project management and scientific coordination, ensuring high-quality and punctual delivery of milestones, managing risks, facilitating communication among partners, and ensuring efficient financial and administrative reporting to the European Commission.

WP lead: EIBIR

Project management and coordination

The specific objectives of WP1 are to:

  • Provide effective management and coordination, decision making and governance mechanisms for the project,
    including scientific and policy coordination
  • Ensure fulfilment of the work plan, including risk management and quality assurance, guarantee punctuality and quality
    of the project’s deliverables and milestones.
  • Facilitate effective communication and punctual reporting to the European Commission.
  • Ensure efficient financial and administrative management of the project.
  • Maintain regular and seamless communication between the project partners.
  • Manage project-related meetings.
  • Setup and manage the consortium bodies and external boards.

Work Package 2

This work package coordinates and ensures full regulatory compliance across the entire project, focusing specifically on data processing laws, aligning with the upcoming European Health Data Space, Data Governance Act, and AI Act, while establishing robust ethical principles for Trustworthy and Robust Artificial Intelligence.

WP lead: UVEG

Ethico-legal management

BreastSCan will face a complex and evolving legal environment. In addition to guaranteeing the fundamental right to data protection and the ethics of biomedical research, there are new challenges. It will be necessary to be aligned with the legal framework that will soon regulate the European Health Data Space Regulation and to define the interplay with regulations such as the Data Governance Act and the Artificial Intelligence Act. The use of artificial intelligence also implies an additional layer of ethical principles for a Trustworthy and Robust Artificial Intelligence.
The legal situation of data holders and AI tool developers will be analysed in relation to data protection before they connect to the EUCAIM infrastructure including: elements of training and awareness on data privacy, DPO acknowledgement and acceptance, risk analysis or DPIA data privacy impact assessment, and compliance with any national or international security standard. Evidence of these elements may be required.

The specific objectives of WP2 are to:

  • Coordinate and ensure regulatory compliance on data processing.
  • Coordinate and ensure compliance with specific regulatory frameworks.
  • Coordinate the ethical compliance of the project.

Work Package 3

This work package is responsible for the technological design and deployment of the federated network, which will share catalogues of breast cancer images in a secure and FAIR-compliant way, orchestrate federated learning processes aligned with the EUCAIM architecture, and provide technical support to project partners.

WP lead: IACS

Technical infrastructures

This WP provides the technological design of the components needed to build a federated network of nodes capable of sharing catalogues of BC images, discovering, finding and accessing these images in a FAIR-compliant way. It will orchestrate federated learning processes across the network to develop accurate AI models for BC diagnosis, aligned with the EUCAIM architecture, and be compliant with the components of HealthData@EU. This WP will serve as technological support to BreastSCan partners in this project.
The specific objectives of WP3 are to:

  • Define the software architecture for sharing and processing images and clinical data, according to legal and organisational restrictions established in WP2 and WP4, with different levels of integrations depending on the nodes capabilities and help all the nodes participants to deploy the needed components to conform the BreastSCan Platform.
  • Identify, test and configure secure processing environments and AI tools to support the tasks for AI models training and validation in the processing nodes of the network
  • Technically support the pilot testing for integrating the developed AI models for inference and development of guidelines for the integration of the models in clinical workflows for screening programs or medical image departments.

Work Package 4

This work package ensures that all participating clinical sites and data nodes are ready and aligned with the Cancer Image Europe infrastructure by establishing a Common Data Model for breast cancer screening data, supporting data pseudonymisation, monitoring data ingestion, and performing comprehensive data quality assessment and enhancement.

WP lead: HULAFE

Clinical site preparation and data management

This WP aims to ensure that the federated BreastSCan_Central node and the federated BreastSCan_Local nodes are fully aligned with the Cancer Image Europe infrastructure, by adopting the data management protocols, quality assurance standards, and interoperability requirements established by EUCAIM.
The specific objectives of WP4 are to:

  • Provide support to BreastSCan data holders to ensure site readiness for data upload and monitor data ingestion.
  • Define a Common Data Model for BCS data compatible with EUCAIM’s CDM.
  • Support the mapping of terms to the EUCAIM’s Hyperontology.
  • Link multiple image acquisitions of the same patient in an anonymised environment, employing data pseudonymisation procedures to ensure the secure transfer of longitudinal data to the BreastSCan_Local and BreastSCan_Central federated nodes.
  • Perform a minimum data quality assessment based on EUCAIM’s data quality standards for the three different compliance Data Tiers.
  • Enhance Data Quality and Usability by using EUCAIM’s pre-processing tools and services, allowing for data conversion to Tier N+.
  • Adopt EUCAIM’s approach for checking data FAIRness, considering aspects of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability for both data and metadata.

Work Package 5

This work package’s primary goal is to evaluate and validate the adoption of existing or newly developed AI tools within the Cancer Image Europe platform using the new breast cancer screening data, focusing on tasks like image harmonisation, quality check, density classification, lesion detection, and risk stratification.

WP lead: LILT

Testing of AI tools on the BreastSCan platform

The primary objectives of WP5 are to evaluate and validate the adoption of AI tools, both existing and newly developed (commercially available or research tools), in the Cancer Image Europe platform with new BC screening data collection applied to DM/DBT (but possibly also on ultrasound and MRI breast images, when available) alongside clinical information (for the tasks where clinical information is needed). The WP5 will also provide recommendations for the adoption of AI tools for a series of different tasks. The focus will be on leveraging AI-based solutions already available or available during the project duration for potential integration within the EU Cancer Imaging Initiative to support standardised and scalable cancer screening and diagnostic workflows.
The specific objectives of WP5 are to:

  • Test existing or newly developed AI models for image preprocessing (harmonisation/cleaning), quality check of breast positioning/artefacts, breast density classification, lesion detection, lesion characterisation and risk stratification through real-world test use cases.
  • Demonstrate the use of AI tools within the Cancer Image Europe Platform.
  • Provide support for clinical centres in adopting AI tools, aligned with EHDS guidelines and the European Cancer Imaging Initiative.

Work Package 6

This work package is dedicated to ensuring close collaboration, continuous knowledge exchange, and exploitation of synergies with the EUCAIM project across ethico-legal, IT, and data management aspects, managing the Collaboration Board, and defining metrics to evaluate alignment progress.

WP lead: UPV

Alignment with the EUCAIM project

The specific objectives of WP6 are to:

  • Ensure close collaboration and foster continuous knowledge exchange with EUCAIM
  • Manage the EUCAIM Collaboration Board
  • Facilitate the exploitation of synergies in relation to ethico-legal, IT, and data management aspects

Work Package 7

This work package is dedicated to defining and implementing the project’s dissemination strategy, setting up communication material, liaising with stakeholders, fostering the uptake of project results and guidelines, and ultimately contributing to increasing the reach of the European Cancer Imaging Initiative.

WP lead: EIBIR

Dissemination and Communication

The specific objectives of WP7 are to:

  • Define and implement the project’s dissemination plan and strategy
  • Set-up and deploy relevant communication and dissemination material
  • Liaise with the BreastSCan target groups (defined in section 3.2) and other stakeholders in the field
  • Foster uptake of the project results, tools, and guidelines
  • Contribute to increasing the reach of the European Cancer Imaging Initiative
  • Collaborate with EUCAIM and other relevant projects and stakeholders to maximise impact

Work Package 8

This work package is responsible for monitoring and evaluating the achievement of the action-level indicators, supporting risk management, and, crucially, ensuring the long-term sustainability of project achievements by making the ingested breast cancer screening data permanently available to researchers and innovators.

WP lead: SAPIENZA

Evaluation and Sustainability

The specific objectives of WP8 are to:

  • Monitor and evaluate achievement of the action-level indicators defined for BreastSCan and to devise mitigation measures as needed.
  • Support risk review and management in collaboration with WP1.
  • Monitor achievement of expected impact.
  • Ensure sustainability of the project achievements, above all.
  • Ensure that the BC screening data ingested into EUCAIM will be available to researchers and innovators on a lasting basis to allow research on and testing of AI-algorithms to improve screening programmes to the ultimate benefit of the European population at risk.
  • Follow and promote the EUCAIM sustainability efforts towards creation of an EDIC in its outreach to health authorities and other relevant policymakers.

Join the EUCAIM Consortium

Open Call for New Beneficiaries

We’re inviting new partners to enhance our pan-European infrastructure for cancer images and artificial intelligence.

Whether you’re a data holder with valuable cancer images or an innovator developing AI tools for precision medicine, this is your chance to contribute to a groundbreaking project.

Apply by 10 June 2024!

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Open Call Webinar

We recently hosted a webinar with more details for prospective applicants to the open call. A recording is available.

WATCH THE RECORDING

Our open Call for new collaborators
launches in April 2024

Opportunities for data holders & AI developers to contribute await! Let‘s join forces to enhance cancer diagnosis and treatment

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SAVE THE DATE
March 14, 10:00-11:30 aM CET

DISCOVER THE CANCER IMAGE EUROPE PLATFORM

TECHNICAL DEMONSTRATION WEBINAR

Explore the potential for AI-driven cancer care advancements!
Learn how to access and utilize our federated cancer image repository. The webinar is for AI Innovators & Data Providers interested in the platform and will feature an introduction to EUCAIM & Cancer Image Europe and a demonstration of data exploration & access.

Survey Invitation

Join Leading Experts In Shaping AI In Cancer

EUCAIM is looking for your feedback! We have recently published a Stakeholder Survey in order to reach out to potential end-users and stakeholders. We believe that your insights could significantly contribute to understanding the expectations of potential users and identifying the essential aspects that stakeholders find crucial for future engagement and collaboration with the platform.

Therefore, we would like to invite you to participate in the Stakeholder Survey about the Cancer Image Europe platform.

Completing the survey will take approximately 10 minutes. Your participation is crucial to the success of this project, and we deeply appreciate your expertise in shaping the future of cancer imaging and treatment.

Participate