At the European Congress of Radiology (ECR), Federica Zanca, Programme Manager for Medical Imaging and AI at the European Innovation Council (EIC) in Leuven, Belgium, addressed the critical funding landscape for AI in healthcare under the Horizon Europe framework. She delineated the framework's three foundational pillars: Excellence, Thematic Research and Innovation, emphasising the pivotal role of the EIC in fostering deep tech innovations. Zanca made it clear that funding is directed exclusively towards transformative technologies, stating, "We don’t fund any incremental research," and underscoring the potential for market disruption.
Zanca elaborated on key EIC funding mechanisms, including Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerator. Pathfinder supports early-stage deep tech research, while Transition assesses market readiness. The Accelerator stands out by offering grants of up to €2.5 million and equity investments reaching €10 million, which is crucial for SMEs aiming to navigate funding shortfalls. She also spotlighted the EIC Fund as Europe’s largest venture capital arm, designed to act as a catalyst for attracting co-investment in high-risk projects with inadequate bankability.
A highlight of Zanca's presentation was the 2025 Pathfinder Challenge, a €30 million initiative targeting Generative AI (GenAI) applications for enhanced medical diagnostics and cancer treatment. This challenge seeks to foster the integration of AI capabilities for multi-modal medical data analysis, which is essential for improving disease detection and personalising therapeutics. She articulated the ambition for projects that bolster population-level real-world data applications, advocating for multimodal and multidimensional machine learning approaches. The challenge is set to tackle significant AI constraints, such as data scarcity, interpretability challenges and the need for real-time adaptability.
Key technological objectives of the initiative include:
- AI-driven multi-modal data integration for structured medical insights.
- Synthetic data generation to counter data limitations.
- Dynamic medical knowledge representation to capture evolving patient conditions.
On the clinical front, the challenge will target:
- Predictive diagnostics and personalised treatment pathways.
- Disease progression monitoring and treatment efficacy analysis.
Zanca emphasised the necessity of interdisciplinary collaboration, calling on AI researchers, clinicians, radiologists and medical physicists to synergise their efforts. She also advocated for the utilisation of existing European healthcare infrastructures, stating, “We don’t want to reinvent the wheel.”
In addition to the Pathfinder Challenge, she introduced an EIC Accelerator Challenge focused on AI for radiology workflow automation, supported by a budget of €50 million. This initiative is geared towards SMEs engaged in the development of AI-driven radiology tools, such as automated reporting and workflow optimisation technologies. The overarching objective is to enhance clinical efficiency, improve diagnostic accuracy and facilitate the seamless integration of AI into routine practice.
Zanca concluded by articulating Europe’s strategic aspirations for autonomy in AI, aiming to diminish reliance on the US and China while enhancing international collaboration. She expressed concern over Europe’s relative technological lag, stressing the need for urgent support of deep tech innovations. Recognising AI as a cornerstone of strategic technology, the EIC is committed to catalysing technological leadership, operationalising clinical AI and advancing healthcare accessibility, affordability and quality.
Source & Image Credit: ECR 2025
