— about —

MARCIUS brings together a consortium of industrial and academic partners in a novel and bespoke doctoral training program; multi-disciplinary in its content & inter-sectoral regarding the employability of the technology leaders of tomorrow, while providing a coherent training platform to address the increasingly critical challenge of interdisciplinary medical diagnostics. The program puts Early Stage Researchers at the heart of technology development in the European medical imaging technology and training industry, providing comprehensive experience of GE Vingmed Ultrasound’s technology program, while nurturing technical, creative & entrepreneurial skills, via the following key elements:

(1) Doctoral training of 6 Early Stage Researchers leading to the degree of PhD from the KU Leuven, University of Oslo for the students hosted at GE Vingmed Ultrasound, and Maastricht University; 

(2) Up to 18 months in an academic environment (including secondments in clinical environments, e.g. Jessa Hospital) and at least 18 months at industrial facilities (primarily at GE Vingmed Ultrasound, but also through secondments to MedaPhor);

(3) Joint industrial & academic supervision of Early Stage Researchers with a multidisciplinary & inter-sectoral supervisory board;

(4) A training program built upon the central theme of clinical cardiac imaging, providing a coherent structure for integration/ application of distinct engineering approaches, highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of industrial research & development;

(5) Science-based taught modules laying a broad and rigorous scientific foundation;

(6) Hands-on courses are provided not only to provide a first-person perspective of the ultrasonographers and physicians, but also to dedicated training track replicating the industrial product development process, through a series of design-, hack- and app-a-thons – an extremely praised approach inherited from the previous ITN-EID USART coordinated by GE Vingmed Ultrasound and KU Leuven, where Early Stage Researchers will be able to suggest and integrate new functionalities within GE’s main software platform for cardiac image processing;

(7) Transferable skills training focused on business innovation, project management, communication tools for widespread dissemination and societal outreach, and  intellectual property, through dedicated training modules;

(8) Individual research projects for each Early Stage Researcher addressing questions with technical depth & scope for originality at the forefront of biomedical engineering research that, taken collaboratively together, form the anchor for a novel generation of solutions for image-based diagnostic of cardiac conditions.