Two important reasons are reducing the spread of heavy ion therapy and the access of a greater number of patients to this sophisticated treatment procedure. The first is the limited availability of clinical and pre-clinical data, the second is the substantial expense of the therapy. The Heavy Ion Therapy Research Integration plus (HITRIplus) (https://hitriplus.eu/) project is a 4 years-research project funded by the European Commission (H2020-INFRAIA-2020-1), aiming to integrate and accelerate biophysics and medical research on the use of heavy ion beams for cancer therapy while jointly developing its sophisticated instruments.

The consortium, composed of 22 Institutes from 14 European countries, for the first time groups together top European industries, academic institutions, and research facilities with all four of Europe’s ion treatment centers. Among the Institutes involved there are research centers of excellence, such as CERN, GSI and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics. A strategic partner of HITRIplus is SEEIIST, an association of eight South East European nations, aims to construct a new generation of heavy ion research infrastructure in the region.

Through the Transnational Access HITRIplus has already given to more than 20 clinicians the opportunity to access and share the clinical expertise in heavy ion therapy by visiting the hadrontherapy facilities and to experience the clinical workflow. The Research Access has attracted research groups from universities, research centres, and hospitals for using the beam time and research facilities for their research with heavy ions. Its Networks are structuring and fostering both clinical and pre-clinical heavy ion treatment research. Joint Research Activities are developing new accelerator and beam delivery technologies to extend the reach of the present generation centres and to define a new European reference design, at lower cost and dimensions, to make cancer ion therapy more accessible and to open new markets to European industry.