UMITA (Ultrasound Medical Imaging: from Theory to Applications) is an Innovative Training Network (ITN) whose main objective will be to train researchers in a multidisciplinary environment, at the border between signal and image processing, applied mathematics, ultrasound instrumentation, clinical and industrial applications. Ultrasound (US) imaging is the gold standard technique in numerous medical applications, such as the cardiovascular or cancer diseases addressed by UMITA. However, it still suffers from several limitations including low spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio, low frame rate for specific applications, and huge quantity of data in 3D acquisitions. As device-related solutions based on current technologies approach their physical limitations, performance improvements can be achieved using novel post-processing techniques. Researchers with multidisciplinary skills in the fields addressed by UMITA are the solution to tackle these very challenging issues in US imaging. The early-stage-researchers (ESR) recruited by UMITA will take advantage of this unique combination of physics, mathematics, engineering and medical training. The activities of UMITA will be performed in close interaction with the industry, through the active participation of at least three companies: CAMELOT, VICOMTECH-IK4 and ESAOTE. Furthermore, clinical applications are part of this work and thus the relevant skills are brought through three clinical teams : University of Pisa, Medical team of Prof. Carlo Palombo, Cardiff University Wales Heart Research Institute, team of Prof. Alan G Fraser, and University of Lyon, Medical team of Creatis. The multidisciplinary scientific training of UMITA ESRs will be completed with complementary skills essential for their future academic or industrial careers. The workshops organized by the non-academic partners of UMITA will give them a complete view of the industrial environment. The numerous occasions to present their work (e.g., international conferences, UMITA meetings, dissemination of their results to general public) will help them to acquire high communication skills. The lectures about ethics in science provided during the summer schools organized by UMITA will give them a different perspective on how their future research will interact with our society. The meetings organized with spin off creators will allow them to understand that a balance between scientific and complementary skills is mandatory to success in their future careers. Thus, the major objective of this network is to conduct interdisciplinary research and provide training to early stage researchers (ESRs) that will allow them to develop innovative US imaging expertise associated to advanced signal and image processing techniques. Besides developing complementary skills such as scientific communication, the ESRs formed by UMITA (Ultrasound Medical Imaging: from Theory to Applications) will develop multiple expertises, in signal and image processing, US instrumentation, industrial and clinical applications. These multidisciplinary skills will allow them to address important challenges in the field of medical imaging.

Complications related to infectious diseases have significantly reduced, particularly in the developed countries, due to the availability and use of broad-range antibiotics and wide variety of antimicrobial agents. Excessive use of antibiotics and antimicrobial agents increased significantly the number of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria. This has resulted in a serious threat to public health. The inexorable rise in the incidence of antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens, coupled with the low rate of emergence of new clinically useful antibiotics, has refocused attention on finding alternatives to overcome antimicrobial resistance. Novel strategies aiming to reduce the amount of antibiotics, but able to prevent and treat animal and human infections should be investigated, evidenced and approved. Among the various approaches, the use of graphene and its derivatives is currently considered a highly promising strategy to overcome microbial drug resistance. In line with this interest in graphene by the European Commission through the graphene ‘flagship’ initiatives, we respond in this consortium by exploring the utility of novel graphene based nanocomposites for the management and better understanding of microbial infections. The anti-microbical potential of the novel graphene based nanomaterials, the possibility of using such structures for the development of non-invase therapies together with the understanding of the mechanism of action will be the main focal points of the proposed project entitled “PANG”, relating to Pathogen and Graphene. We have gathered the essential elements, namely different academic institutions in Europe (France, Germany, and Sweden) and their associated countries (Ukraine) as well as two European companies (Graphenea-Spain and LSO Medical-France) and one company (RS RESEARCH) in one of the associated countries (Turkey). The proposed multidisciplinary project uniquely suits high-level interdisciplinary and cross-border training.

Identifying the sources of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) is one of the most pressing questions in high-energy astrophysics. The advent of high-statistics and high-quality data, most prominently obtained by the Pierre Auger Observatory, has radically changed our understanding of the high-energy Universe, though still without disclosing the cosmic-ray sources. The proposed project addresses this question and aims at identifying source classes that correlate best with existing observational data (direction, energy distribution, and primary mass). A novelty of the proposed approach will be a complete study of bursting sources starting from the modeling of selected source classes, including hadronic interactions within the source, and over the propagation down to Earth, to predicting the UHECR sky as a function of energy and primary mass. Ultra-high-energy sources should be able to confine cosmic rays within a sufficiently magnetized and large region to accelerate them up to the highest observed energies, which imposes in turn a minimum magnetic luminosity. Few, if any, astrophysical sources are able to sustain such a luminosity in the electromagnetic band over a long period of time. This pushes the proponents of the MICRO project to investigate further bursting sources hosted by AGN and starburst galaxies. Intermediate-scale anisotropies of UHECRs can inform us on the direction and on the flux of nearby or most luminous source candidates relatively to an isotropic background built up by fainter objects. The latter component can be estimated from constraints on the luminosity functions of source candidates as a function of redshift. The absolute UHECR flux of each resolved source can be in turn determined relatively to its contribution to the all-sky UHECR spectrum, emphasizing the importance of joint constraints from spectral and anisotropy observables. Besides constraints from arrival directions and the all-sky spectrum, composition informs us on the distance distribution of the sources, as the energy-loss length of an UHECR depends on its nature. Thus, the combined fit of transient source models to arrival direction, spectral, and composition data would constrain the direction, distance, and absolute flux of the source candidates. The objectives specifically addressed in the MICRO project will provide important answers to the leading question of identifying the sources of UHECRs (i) how do burst-like signatures (GRBs, AGN-flares) fit the cosmic-ray data, (i) how can we constrain the 3D distribution of sources from available UHECR observables, and (iii) could astrophysical high-energy neutrinos, some high-energy gamma rays, and UHECRs come from the same bursting sources. The MICRO consortium comprises four Institutions with experienced PIs. They bring in the complementary expertise that is needed to successfully address the ambitious goals of the novel project within a time period of three years.