Europe
Canada

The euCanSHare project is implemented by a highly experienced consortium composed of 17 institutions from Europe and Canada, with a unique track record in biomedical data management and ethics, as well as cardiovascular research and personalised medicine

University of Barcelona (UB) Coordinator

Founded in 1450, UB is the largest university in Barcelona and Catalonia. The research activities will be carried within the DataScience@UB research centre, which is an essential part of the Department of Mathematics and Informatics.

 

UB is the Project Coordinator of euCanSHare and leads the development of the imaging and multi-omics data analytics platform

 

Lynkeus (LYN)

Lynkeus is an independent strategy consultancy specialised in the conception and management of EU-funded projects, with a specific expertise on eHealth, medical AI, data analytics, blockchain, data privacy and security and GDPR compliance. Founded in 2000, it works to identify and promote the best cutting-edge technological solutions in a variety of fields including health and precision medicine, digital arts and cultural heritage.

 

Within euCanSHare, Lynkeus is responsible, jointly with ESC, of the project communication and dissemination strategy, contributes to the implementation of the blockchain platform and the harmonisation of Canada and EU-GDPR regulation in regard to data privacy

 

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

UPF is 1st in Spain in research performance (THE2018). It takes part in euCanSHare through its ICT Department (DTIC) located within the vibrant 22@ technological district of Barcelona. DTIC has an important track record in computational sciences, with a participation in over 100 EU projects. The BCN-MedTech research group develops integrative computational techniques and data analysis tools for biomedical and clinical applications.

 

In euCanSHare, UPF will develop the data analysis module including new image computing and machine learning techniques for large-scale population data

 

Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)

Since its foundation in 1889, the Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) has been one of the leading clinics in Europe. Together with its University Heart Center Hamburg and the Martini Clinic, the UKE has more than 1,730 beds and treats about 472,000 patients a year. The emphasis in UKE’s research are neurosciences, cardio-vascular research, care research, oncology, as well as infections and inflammations. Other potential areas of the UKE are molecular imaging and skeletal biology research.

 

Within euCanSHare, UKE will be devoted to testing the data sharing platform, performing projects dedicated to precision medicine and to gather feedback from all users of the platform

 

Erasmus Universitair Medisch Centrum Rotterdam (EMC)

Netherlands

Erasmus MC Rotterdam is an innovative centre for high-quality medical research, education and care, which ranks in the top ten medical institutes in Europe. The Department of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine is one of the largest, most advanced medical imaging departments in Europe. The Biomedical Imaging Group Rotterdam (BIGR) develops and validates advanced techniques for the processing and analysis of large, biomedical image data sets.

 

In euCanSHare, Erasmus MC is involved in the activities regarding cataloguing biobanks, with a focus on imaging metadata, and imaging data storage and access and linking imaging databases such as XNAT, and image derived data, to other types of data

 

Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)

United Kingdom

QMUL is one of the UK’s leading research-focused higher education institutes. The William Harvey Research Institute is a world-leading centre devoted to therapeutic innovation for cardiovascular, endocrine and inflammatory diseases. Clinical cardiology takes place at the Barts Health NHS Trust, the largest in the UK with 80,000 patient episodes each year. QMUL’s team is the lead for cardiac imaging in the UK Biobank (100,000 cases).

 

In euCanSHare, QMUL will participate to defining the minimum requirements for data provision from cardiovascular cohorts and will lead the multi-centre study on diabetic cardiomyopathy for testing the platform

 

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU LEUVEN)

KU Leuven is a research-intensive, internationally oriented university in Belgium that carries out fundamental and applied research. The Center for Biomedical Ethics and Law (CBMER) is an interdisciplinary center conducting research on the various topics related to bioethics, health care and policy. One of the research lines at CBMER is investigating the ethical, legal, and social aspects of health and genomic data sharing platforms.

 

In euCanSHare CBMER, together with McGill, will be responsible for the socio-legal analysis of developing data sharing platform

 

Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional De Supercomputacion (BSC)

The BSC is part of the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE), an international non-profit association providing high performance computing services for European researchers. Its Life Sciences department coordinates the Spanish National Bioinformatics Institute (INB), managing its computational infrastructure, databases and associated applications, including management of large genomic and biomedical datasets.

 

BSC is responsible of the euCanSHare computational infrastructure and provides technical foundations for data management, including the establishment of data communication channels within the consortium and with data repositories

 

Fundacio Centre de Regulacio Genomica (CRG)

CRG is an international biomedical research institute of excellence whose mission is to discover and advance knowledge for the benefit of society, public health and economic prosperity. This requires an interdisciplinary scientific team focused on understanding the complexity of life from the genome to the cell to a whole organism. The European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA) is a resource for permanent secure archiving and sharing of all types of biomolecular and phenotypic data resulting from biomedical research projects.

 

The EGA will be contributing to the project by managing and storing multi-cohort data with standardised metadata in a FAIR manner

 

European Society of Cardiology (ESC)

ESC is a volunteer-led, not-for-profit, medical society. It represents over 95,000 healthcare professionals and world-renowned experts. ESC organises over 10 yearly cardiology congresses. ESC Congress is the largest and most influential cardiovascular assembly worldwide, attracting over 30,000 participants from 140 different countries each year. The ESC leads in world-class cardiovascular-related research, drawing on expertise from its members and networks, including 14 Registries, involving 100,000 patients across 80 countries.

 

Leading communication and dissemination, ESC is partner in several EU-funded research projects ensuring project results are conveyed via its annual congresses

 

 

Biobanks and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure Consortium (BBMRI-ERIC)

BBMRI-ERIC is a European research infrastructure for biobanking bringing together researchers, biobankers, industry and patients to boost biomedical research. BBMRI offers quality management services, support with ethical, legal and societal issues and a number of online tools and software solutions. It currently consists of 20 European Members States and the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organisation (IARC/WHO).

 

The role of BBMRI-ERIC in euCanSHare is to bring expertise in quality standards for data collection, presentation and evaluation, while ensuring its security and privacy, as well as the project communication and dissemination

 

Terveyden ja Hyvinvoinnin Laitos (THL)

The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) is an independent, governmental research agency. THL studies and monitors – and develops measures to promote – the well-being and health of the population in Finland. THL has long experience in the standardization, data harmonisation, data management and analysis of large multinational population studies.

 

In the euCanSHare project, THL’s main responsibility will be to implement the data catalogue and cohort browser. In addition, THL will actively take part in data harmonisation, data management, development of statistical tools, and testing the euCanSHare platform

 

Universitätsmedizin Greifswald (UMG)

The University Medicine Greifswald (UMG) encompasses a total of 21 clinics/polyclinics, and 19 institutes. The Institute of Community Medicine, department SHIP/KEF conducts the population-based Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP). It has a strong know-how in the development of data quality standards. The Institute of Bioinformatics is specialized in the development and application of mathematical and computational methods such as direct mathematical modelling, machine learning.

 

UMG contributes to euCanSHare by supporting data quality related software implementations, an application use case based on SHIP along mathematical and computational methods

 

Nostrum Biodiscovery Sociedad Limitada (NBD)

Operating since 2016, NBD is the first joint spin-off of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the Institute of Research in Biomedicine. The company develops and exploits computational chemistry and simulation methods to drive early drug discovery projects for a range of clients in Europe and the US. It is also engaged in disruptive drug discovery projects with universities and hospitals.

 

Within euCanSHare, NBD will be involved in testing the platform potential for the development of novel therapies for cardiovascular disease, by testing hypothesis on new therapeutic targets derived from mining of clinical and epidemiological data

 

The euCanSHare project is implemented by a highly experienced consortium composed of 17 institutions from Europe and Canada, with a unique track record in biomedical data management and ethics, as well as cardiovascular research and personalised medicine

The Research Institute of The McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC)

RI-MUHC is a world-renowned biomedical and health care hospital research center affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University.  Hosted at the RI-MUHC, Maelstrom Research (MR) is a multi-disciplinary group leading the development of methods and software to support collaborative epidemiological research.

 

MR lends its expertise to the euCanSHare initiative by providing guidance and software tools to facilitate the documentation and dissemination of study metadata across collaborating studies, and to plan and implement multi-centre data harmonization projects

 

Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning McGill University

The Centre of Genomics and Policy (CGP) of McGill University works at the crossroads of law, medicine, and public policy. Applying a multidisciplinary perspective and collaborating with national and international partners, the CGP analyzes the socio-ethical and legal norms influencing the promotion, prevention and protection of human health.

 

In euCanSHare, CGP aims to identify gaps between the European and Canadian federal laws, regulations, and policies, perform a comparative analysis of consent forms and information brochures, and develop a set of minimal common data transactions for the development of dedicated smart contracts

 

McMaster University (MCM)

MCM is consistently rated among the top one hundred institutions in the world for the quality and breadth of its research. Its Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) is Canada’s premiere global health research institute and a world leader in large clinical trials and population studies. To date, PHRI studies have enrolled almost 1,000,000 participants worldwide.

 

In euCanSHare, the McMaster team will be engaged in activities related to data management plan and data access, as well as to the validation use cases using the multi-regional imaging, biospecimen, lifestyle and anthropometric data collected in the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds (CAHMM)