Italian National Research Council

The Italian National Research Council (CNR – www.cnr.it) is the main public research organisation in Italy. CNR’s goal is to perform, promote, spread, transfer and improve research activities in all the sectors of science and knowledge. CNR consists of about 100 different research institutes that span from human sciences to engineering sciences. In EUCAIM, two CNR units will be involved, belonging to two institutes:

–   the Institute of Biostructures and BioImages (IBB-CNR), Naples and Turin

–   the Institute of Information Science and Technologies “Alessandro Faedo” (ISTI-CNR), Pisa

ISTI-CNR (www.isti.cnr.it) is the largest CNR institute for Computer Science and is committed to produce scientific excellence and to play an active role in technology transfer in the field of Information Science and related technologies. The ISTI-CNR unit is led by the “Signals & Images” Lab (silab.isti.cnr.it/), a research group working in the fields of multimedia data acquisition, processing and understanding, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and intelligent systems, knowledge representation and modelling, medical imaging understanding, and smart vision systems. The Lab has experiences in big data analytics, based on a multidisciplinary approach to knowledge extraction from large, federated and heterogeneous datasets, and by exploiting the experience gained in statistics, computational topology, and artificial neural networks. The lab is also working on the definition of appropriate methodological and technological measures and approaches to ensure the trustworthiness of AI and ML methods, in terms of transparency, fairness, traceability, explainability and reproducibility. The team has contributed to the FUTURE-AI guiding principles. In the most recent national and international research efforts, the team is working in R&D of AI models for medical imaging data processing on large, distributed platforms, the FAIRification of these models, and their in-production monitoring.

IBB-CNR (www.ibb.cnr.it) has 100 staff units distributed in Naples and Turin that carries out translational research for the development of new tools for prevention, diagnosis and targeted therapies with expertise in multiple imaging modalities provide the interdisciplinary bases to carry out a truly innovative research in the field of molecular imaging and personalized therapy. The IBB has a consolidated experience in the research of biomarkers of various pathologies, design and synthesis of molecules able to interact with certain biomarkers and preclinical validation of the molecules developed. Another research area developed by IBB is e-Health, to create open-source software systems, consisting of models, services and tools to support diagnosis, therapy and follow-up, as well as for the innovative management of health processes.

The Institute is part of the Italian node of the European Research Infrastructure for Imaging Technologies in Biological and Biomedical Sciences (Euro-BioImaging ERIC, www.eurobioimaging.eu) and host the Med-Hub which coordinates the access to biomedical imaging services, the development of tools to make imaging data FAIR.

Role of institution in the project

ISTI-CNR is participating mainly in WP4, WP5, WP6  and WP7, by contributing to the definition of the Common Data Model for imaging and clinical data, the integration of pre-processing and quality assessment tools, data analysis and AI components, and to the definition of use cases and EUCAIM dashboard.

IBB-CNR is participating mainly in WP4, WP5, WP6, WP7 and WP8, by contributing to the development of tools for searchable FAIR Metadata, interoperability, implementation of federated image data analysis, preparation of open calls for data incorporation use cases and contributing to the definition of the long-term maintenance and expansion of the platform.

Linda Chaabane

Linda Chaabane is the section Director of the Medical Hub at Euro-BioImaging ERIC. She leads a team to coordinate and operate the pan-European research infrastructure services for biomedical imaging in Euro-BioImaging. After a master in Physics at the University of Lyon in France, she conducted her PhD in biomedical engineering that drives her to develop her career in Magnetic Resonance imaging field to investigate various human diseases at preclinical level and in clinical settings. She represents the interests of the biomedical imaging community within Euro-BioImaging ERIC and promotes the research infrastructure at the national and international level.

Sara Colantonio

Sara Colantonio is a senior researcher at the Institute of Information Science and Technologies "A. Faedo" of the National Research Council of Italy and a member of the "Signals and Images" Laboratory. Her background is in Computer Science and Information Engineering and she is working since several years in the field of artificial intelligence, machine learning, medical imaging, assistive technologies, personal informatics and quantified self, and trustworthy AI. She was appointed as one of the 40 Top Transformers in health in 2016 by MM&M for her innovation activities related to the Wize Mirror for cardiometabolic disease prevention. She is currently Quality Manager of the EU H2020 ProCAncer-I, she is co-leading the Working Group 3 about audio- and video-based AAL technologies of the Cost Action GoodBrother, and the Working Group MAD4Future of CNR strategic project FORESIGHT. She is a member of the international multi-stakeholder group of experts "Artificial Intelligence for Health Imaging" (AI4HI), contributing to the definition of the FUTURE-AI guidelines on trustworthy AI in medical applications, and she is currently leading the AI4HI Working Group on AI development.

Dr. Dario Longo

Dr. Dario Longo is Head of the Research Unit of Torino of the IBB-CNR. He has experience in developing tools for management and processing of medical image datasets, and in promoting FAIR principles.

Maria Antonietta Pascali

Maria Antonietta Pascali received her M.Sc. in Mathematics honors degree from the University of Pisa in 2005 and Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 2010. She is Researcher at ISTI-CNR in Pisa since February 1, 2010. She is an active member of the IAPR TC16 on “Algebraic and Discrete Mathematical Techniques in Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis”, organizing workshops and serving as associate editor of journals in this research field. Research interests: modelling the protein 3D motion, 3D virtual environment in Cultural Heritage, and heterogeneous and multimodal data integration for underwater archaeology; 3D shape analysis for e-health, thermal imaging, statistical data analysis of health-related data, applied computational topology, interplay of Topological Data Analysis and Artificial Intelligence, and deep learning applied biomedical imaging.

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!

Open Call Webinar

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

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

Be the first to know and apply!

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.