The consortium
To address the broad spectrum of this project, the consortium consists of metrological (PTB, TUBITAK, CMI, INRIM, LNE), academic (UMCF, LUMC, KCL, ETHZ, UNIABDN, CSIC, CTU, FHDO, OVGU, STU BA), industrial (KAR, BL, OREG) and clinical (IUC) participants. The project brings together long-established players in the field of MR hardware and software development, in particular researchers who are active members of the ISMRM, including board members of the ISMRM and other top-ranking professional organisations; all participants have solid publication records. The participants of the project enjoy the highest scientific reputation in this field of research. They are reviewers and dedicated teachers, act as advisors and consultants on multiple levels, and are prominently engaged in a multitude of research projects and consortia.
PTB (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Braunschweig and Berlin, Germany) is the world’s only NMI with a complete department devoted to MRI related metrology. PTB has a long history in the development of novel MR acquisition and reconstruction techniques (including machine-learning based approaches) especially for quantitative MRI. PTB operates a clinical 3 T whole-body and a low-field 48 mT MR scanner. Within this project PTB will build a low-field MR reference system and characterise it. PTB will develop MR image reconstruction approaches to provide quantitative T2 and T1,rho maps including machine-learning based approaches. PTB participated in many European projects and has also coordinated several of them. PTB coordinates this project and leads WP1.
CMI (Czech Metrology Institute, Brno, Czech Republic) will provide its expertise in the legal metrological control over legally controlled measuring instruments (the regulated area), both at the European level of legislation (conformity assessment) as well as at the national one. CMI actively takes part in the work of Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), International Organisation of Legal Metrology (OIML), European Cooperation in Legal Metrology (WELMEC). CMI contributes to all work packages and leads WP4.
INRIM (Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Torino, Italy) will mainly focus on hardware development, characterisation and optimisation of the low-field scanners (WP1). To achieve this INRIM has three laboratories with specific set-ups aimed to carry out relevant activities. Moreover, their electromagnetic modeling capabilities will be made available to the consortium for the optimisation and refinement of the scanners. INRIM’s staff was/is a partner in many European projects and is coordinating EMPIR 18HLT05 “QUIERO”. INRIM is a member of the European Metrology Network Mathmet.
LNE (Laboratoire national de métrologie et d’essais, Paris, France) has expertise in machine learning, uncertainty evaluation studies, research, training, computation and software development. LNE is represented on JCGM, and in ISO TC 69 Statistical methods committee and in numerous international and national scientific bodies, IMEKO, Société Française de statistique (SFdS), Collège Francais de métrologie (CFM). LNE’ data science and uncertainty department has collaborated on MRI in previous European projects (EMRP 15HLT05 and EMPIR 18HLT05).
TUBITAK (TUBITAK National Metrology Institute, Gebze, Türkiye) will participate in the production of power amplifiers and replication of two low-field 0.055 T MR scanner systems for Türkiye (WP1). TUBITAK will also participate in the design and characterisation of permanent magnet assembly in MRI which is included in WP1. The laboratory did similar work during the establishment of UME Kibble balance system, which has an oscillating permanent magnetic part, in 2015. The laboratory is equipped with several high sensitivity magnetometers used in measurement of magnetic flux density.
CSIC (Spanish National Research Council, Valencia, Spain) will contribute their experience with a portable MRI scanner designed for extremity imaging (WP1). This system has been operated in clinical settings and in highly unconventional scenarios including: outdoors, powered by a small fuel engine and even in patients’ apartments, demonstrating the possibility of MRI for home healthcare for the first time. A copy of this system will be based in the largest hospital in Valencia, allowing for comparisons and transfer learning between low and high field acquisitions. CSIC will collect and evaluate in vivo data (WP3).
CTU (Czech Technical University, Prague, Czech Republic) has many years of experience in the design, testing, and clinical implementation of devices and software tools. One of the specialties is innovative metamaterial RF and highly sensitive metamaterial sensors. The group has experience in RF and microwave measurements, SAR measurement, and calculation. CTU participated in many European projects and coordinated several of them. CTU contributes with their experience in hardware development and characterisation mainly to WP1.
FHDO (University of Applied Science and Arts, Dortmund, Germany) is one of the main developers of the MaRCoS MRI console, which will be used in this research project as part of WP1. FHDO has proven experience in integrating and developing hardware components around the MRI console, such as HF-amplifier, T/R-switch and low noise amplifier, which will also be part of WP1.
IUC (Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Türkiye) is equipped with three high-field MRI systems (1.5 and 3 T) and one PET-MR scanner. A copy of the low-field MR scanner (WP1) will be based in the IUC Medical Faculty Hospital (one of the largest academic hospitals in İstanbul), to define and implement a clinical study protocol for neurological and orthopaedic applications.
KAR (KAR Biotech, Prague, Czech Republic) is a Ltd company has extensive experience in conformity assessment of medical devices or health technology assessment (HTA). KAR will contribute mainly to WP4 to help preparing the technical documentation according to MDR (EU)2017/745.
LUMC (Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands) focuses on hardware development, sequence development and reconstruction approaches at field strength ranging from 50 mT to 7 T. LUMC strongly supports the concept of open-source science and has shared both design codes and hardware models of a low field head-only MRI scanner. In this project LUMC will support the development and characterisation of the low field reference system (WP1), work on MRI pulse sequence development (WP2) and image reconstruction (WP3). LUMC will lead WP5, which focuses on educational content, creating instructional videos and communicate developments of the project through conferences and (social) media outlets.
OREG (OpenRegulatory, Berlin, Germany) is one of the leading consultancies focused on regulatory compliance for software as a medical device. It has already helped 60+ companies, achieve regulatory compliance and bring their software as a medical device to market. OREG will contribute by creating a regulatory strategy for certification and medical device compliance and will evaluate how to incorporate modern software development methods with the regulatory documentation requirements (e.g. using GitHub / GitLab for compliant documentation and software testing) (WP4).
OVGU (Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany) has a broad expertise in MR imaging methodology and MR hardware. OVGU closely cooperates with the start-up company Neoscan Solutions and contributes to the hardware development of their clinical MRI system, in particular the RF supervision and RF coils. Based on the Open-source Console for Real-time Acquisition console, the team has developed a fully functional table-top MR system with all hardware components built in-house. In this project OVGU will focus on the console development (WP1) and integration of the scanner control software with the console (WP2).
STU BA (Slovak Technical University, Bratislava, Slovakia) has extensive experience in creating theoretical models, model testing, and data evaluation, including the evaluation of uncertainties. STU BA will contribute to WP3 and WP4.
UMCF (University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany) has a long history of MRI method and hardware development. It operates two 3 T MRI scanners and three small animal MRIs. Open-source vendor-independent MR sequence environment Pulseq was developed in Freiburg and will be the basis for WP2 which will be led by UMCF. Additionally, with its vast experience in gradient system design and implementation UMCF will develop replicable gradient coils (WP1).
BRAIN-LINK (Brain-Link UG, Landau/Pfalz, Germany) is a start-up company which specialises in open, sustainable and reliable medical software technologies. BRAIN-LINK’s key competences are data engineering, data science, cloud development, machine learning, real-time signal processing, image reconstruction and software architecture. BRAIN-LINK will contribute with their experience in developing a open-source cloud platform for clinical procedure management, multimodal data acquisition and processing (WP2).
ETHZ (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zurich, Switzerland) is one of the leading international universities for technology and the natural sciences. For this project the full portfolio of experimental and clinical MR systems is available for research including a novel platform with a user-definable field ranging from 0.6 to 1.5 Tesla. Fully equipped RF laboratories allow the development of custom-made MR instrumentation including sensor and probe development (WP1). ETHZ will associate to all funded beneficiaries.
KCL (King’s College London, London, UK) will contribute to this project with the development of novel image reconstruction approaches for T2 and T1,rho quantification for low-field MR systems. The research in this proposal will be carried out in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences (BMEIS) at KCL. BMEIS is a multidisciplinary environment with an outstanding record of developing and clinically translating biomedical imaging techniques. It is equipped with 10 MRI systems: one 0.055 T, one 0.55 T, two 1.5 T, four 3 T, one 7 T and one PET-MR.KCL is leading WP3. KCL will associate to all funded beneficiaries
UNIABDN (University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK) has been involved in European projects since Framework 3 with successful participation in > 700 European grants with a long-established expertise in MRI system innovation, design, assembly, commissioning and clinical trials. They will contribute to the project by organising the documentation strategy for the dissemination of open-source MRI technology based on a well-established modular approach used in software deployment, as part of WP4 led by CMI. Their expertise in MRI systems will facilitate the development and testing of versatile hardware data package structures, in partnership with the WP4 members. UNIABN will associate to all funded beneficiaries.