ENTERVISION Mid Term Review
ENTERVISION, the Research Training Network in 3D Digital Imaging for Cancer Radiation Therapy, successfully passed its mid-term review held at CERN on 11 January. This multidisciplinary project aims at training experts in medical imaging techniques for improved hadron therapy and radiotherapy in general. The project, coordinated by CERN, brings together ten academic institutes and research centres of excellence and the one leading European company in particle therapy. It provides training for 12 Early-Stage Researchers and 4 Experienced Researchers of different backgrounds and nationalities.
The training covers physics, medicine, electronics, informatics, radiobiology and engineering, as well as a wide range of soft skills e.g. the communication, leadership and teamwork course which was featured in the last issue of Highlights. The network is funded by the European Commission within the Marie Curie Initial Training Network, and relies on the EU-funded research project ENVISION to provide a research and training scientific platform for the Marie Curie researchers. The two projects hold their annual meetings jointly, allowing the young researchers to meet senior scientists and to have a full picture of the latest developments in the field beyond their individual research project. This is an important aspect of the project as it is unusual for researchers so early on in their career to establish professional relationships with the leading experts in their field.
A video about the MTR was produced, you can see it here: http://cds.cern.ch/record/1512628
According to the Mid-Term review, the project is excelling in the scientific work and training carried out so far. The fact that this ITN is connected to an FP7 Cooperation project, and that the ENTERVISION ERs and ESRs are carrying out their research together with their ENVISION colleagues ensures that they will deliver concrete results which will be published in due course.
The EU project officer Dr Marcela GROHOLOVA was present at the MTR and commented “From my side, the project is running very well, fellows get very professional and high level scientific training. It seems that this project will contribute a lot to their career development. Also the collaboration with your partners seems to work very well, they are fully integrated into the project tasks. Fellows are happy in the network, they certainly gain a lot scientifically, professionally as well as in terms of a multicultural experience. It seems that they all are very happy to be Marie Curie fellows.”
As with the PARTNER project, the researchers are actively encouraged to socialise together after the meetings and friendship bonds as well as a professional network are being created. During their visit to CERN they were able to visit the magnet testing facility, taste the Swiss speciality cheese fondue and some even ventured up the nearby Jura mountains for a ski and snow-shoeing trip. The eclectic menu and musical selection at their social soiree demonstrated the multicultural diversity of the group (Chinese dumplings with Zorba the Greek)!
