Grants by the Horizon Europe program promote international cooperation to develop a response to the major challenges of the time, including those in cancer medicine
Prof. Hossam Haick of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa won three prestigious European research 
grants totaling 4.2 million euros for his research group. He will also serve as chairman and coordinator of one of the projects that has 22 partners and a total funding of 14 million euros. Winning the grants was preceded by intensive work by the members of Prof. Haik’s research group – the administrative manager of the group Liat Tsuri and Dr. Rotem Vishinkin, a scientific researcher and project manager.
This is an unprecedented achievement by Prof. Haick, a faculty member at the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI), who currently also serves as the Dean of Undergraduate studies at the Technion and is an expert in the field of nanotechnology and non-invasive disease diagnosis.
The grants are awarded within the framework of the Horizon Europe program, which supports consortia that produce cooperation among many entities in the different countries in the European Union, while focusing on practical solutions to the challenges of the time – all based on innovative technologies whose development demands extensive international cooperation.
Prof. Haick won three grants at the same time. For the largest one, he serves as the coordinator of the consortium called LUCIA, which includes 22 partners that will receive funding in the current round in the total amount of 14 million Euros. The consortium is developing new ways of understanding the risk factors for lung cancer – the deadliest type of cancer in terms of the number of its victims today.
The LUCIA consortium examines three aspects of the risk factors: personal risk factors, including lifestyle and exposure to pollutants; external factors including urban and built-up environments, transportation, climate and social aspects; and biological responses to risk factors including aging and genetic, epigenetic and metabolic changes. The results of the consortium’s activity will be translated into policy recommendations with the aim of incorporating them into a program for early diagnosis of lung cancer.
One of the partners in the LUCIA consortium is Prof. Yuval Shaked of the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine who will research ways of understanding the risk mechanisms for early diagnosis of lung cancer.
Prof. Haick is a co-founder of the second consortium, ONCOSCREEN, which won a grant of 12.5 million euros and has 38 members. The consortium is working to create a protective European “shield” against bowel cancer and will focus on developing new imaging methods for the disease. Even though bowel cancer is a dangerous and deadly disease, only about 14% of EU citizens undergo the relevant tests (such as checking for occult blood and colonoscopy). The consortium works to develop innovative diagnostic methods that will be fast, accurate, inexpensive and non-invasive.
In the third consortium, MELCAYA, which won a grant of 8.4 million euros, 25 entities are members. The consortium will focus on the prevention of melanoma – the most dangerous type of skin cancer – mainly in children and young people, a population for whom the current diagnostic programs are insufficient.
The promotion and assistance in submissions to the European programs are the responsibility of the Technion’s Research Authority. whose head of the Research Promotion Unit is Dr. Asi Cohen-Dotan, Shirly Rakier Mark Davison and Hayley Binia-Wolman.
“This is an extraordinary achievement by Prof. Hossam Haick,” said Dr. Cohen-Dotan. “Prof. Haick continues to lead successes in very competitive tracks in the European research programs, while performing a significant organizational role. This year, the Technion succeeded in increasing both the number of grants it receives from this program and their financial range, which has made it a noteworthy player in European activity in applied research.