In a full-day review at CERN, Marie Curie researchers of the European training network in digital medical imaging for radiotherapy (ENTERVISION) presented results of the networks first two years of activity to the European Commission project officer and an external expert. The Commission gave the green light for the network to provide a further two years of training in particle therapy.

ENTERVISION was established in February 2011 to reinforce research in online 3D digital imaging by training researchers in methods for the early detection and more precise treatment of tumours. The network comprises ten academic institutes and research centres and a leading European company in particle therapy. It sponsors 16 researchers, three of whom are based at CERN. The ENTERVISION researchers have very different academic backgrounds and come from all over Europe, with a few from further afield (Brazil and China).

“Today the European Commission officer recognised the value of our project in training researchers, both young and experienced, in the multidisciplinary field of medical imaging for radiotherapy,” says ENTERVISION coordinator and CERN’s life sciences advisor Manjit Dosanjh. "We are pleased that this training programme will continue, as there is a critical need for highly qualified scientists in this fast evolving field," she says. “In the next two years our trainees will fully develop their research projects and will build a multidisciplinary network which will not only help them in their future careers but ultimately improve the transfer of knowledge between the various disciplines of cancer treatment”.

Today's decision will ensure that ENTERVISION’s training activities continue. The training is connected with the research programme of ENVISION, a collaboration of European research centres and industrial partners for the development of novel imaging techniques for safer and more precise hadron therapy. ENVISION held its third annual meeting yesterday at CERN, and the presentations on the various activities, as well as the number of scientific publications, clearly showed that the consortium has fully entered into the research phase and is functioning extremely well as a training platform.