A single-partner project is eligible for funding provided it is carried out by a single company, regardless of size, registered in France in the Trade and Companies Register (RCS) on the date the application is submitted.

Yes, a consortium is eligible for funding. There is no "typical" consortium, however, certain conditions must be met.

• The project must be led by a "lead" company;
• Collaborative projects must involve at least one SME or ETI, a research organization, and/or a healthcare establishment or equivalent (Example: healthcare, medico-social establishments, associations, networks of medical imaging professionals, ...).
• Collaborative projects involving a maximum of 6 partners are to be preferred
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Hospitals carrying out a clinical trial will be indicated as financial subcontractors in the financial appendix.

With a view to structuring the industry, particular attention will be paid to projects submitted in consortium.

For collaborative projects a project coordination and management strategy is expected
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The project duration will be between 24 and 60 months.

• Quality and robustness of the proposed business model and business plan, demonstrating in particular a return on investment for the carrier or consortium;
• Potential market for the solution developed (an analysis of the target market will be particularly appreciated),
• Market access strategy;
• Economic spin-offs and jobs on the territories (including subcontracted tasks), stemming directly from the project, from the follow-ups it will give or, where necessary, from its consistency with territorial policies;
• The generalizability of the innovative solution developed as part of the project submitted, and the presence of a market making its dissemination possible.

Innovative character and added value of the project:

• Relevance to the purpose of the call for projects;
• Degree of disruption in terms of technological or non-technological innovation (offer, organization, business model) and innovative character in relation to the international state of the art;
• Development of new products or services, with strong innovative content and added value, leading to a market launch and the generation of economic or environmental spin-offs;
• Relevance of project duration in line with the ambition of the work to be carried out.

If the proposed technology is likely to provide an organizational innovation, we then invite project sponsors to detail the impacts of such an innovation by referring to the HAS mapping of organizational impacts for health technology assessment.

In particular, by organizational innovation we mean any solution enabling, for example:
- The improvement of practices between imaging professionals;
- The pooling of skills, resources and means;
- optimizing coordination of patient care;
- Guaranteeing access to care for patients in the regions;
- ...

In order to make the scope of the PAA clearer for potential project sponsors, we propose a non-exhaustive list of examples of specialties eligible for the "Innovation in medical imaging" PAA:

• Assistance with diagnosis or therapeutic decision-making via processing and diagnostic software;
• Telediagnosis or tele-expertise via software development platforms for image analysis (using AI in particular);
• Interventional imaging via image-guided therapy and augmented reality technologies, or image-guided remote and robotic therapies;
• Nomadic and communicating imaging;
• Hybrid and multimodal imaging;

Also non-exhaustively, the technological fields targeted by the AAP are as follows:

• Radiology (ionizing imaging, MRI);
• Ultrasound imaging, ultrasound ;
• Nuclear imaging ;
• Neurology imaging: electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG) ;
• Microscopy imaging (optical, electron), particularly in anatomocytopathology (ACP);
• Optical & fluorescence imaging: surgery, cardiovascular, gastroenterology, pulmonology, ENT, gynecology-obstetrics, dermatology, ophthalmology, etc;
• Small animal imaging is out of scope except translational imaging;
• Non-exhaustive list.

The aim of this AAP is to support projects, whose technological maturity is between a TRL 3 and 5, to reach a TRL between 7 and 9 (in case the scale is not applicable, the project should be able to justify a Market Readiness Level of at least 3).
. These projects may include industrial research and experimental development phases, prior to market launch. As a result, the clinical studies needed to qualify the devices developed and/or obtain markings (CE, FDA, ...) are possible.

However, this aid scheme is not intended to finance post-CE-marking clinical investigations.

If your project involves funding studies to evaluate the clinical and/or medico-economic performance of an imaging solution, then we invite you to turn to the Evaluation of the medical and/or economic benefit of digital or artificial intelligence-based medical devices
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The date of eligibility of expenditure is by default the date of acknowledgement of receipt of the aid application file.

The company registers its project on the Bpifrance filing platform PIXCEL, selecting as the call for projects "IMAGERIE MEDICALE 1".

For a complete application, 6 documents are required. You will find the list of documents in the document "0.Completeness of the application" in the application file downloadable from the AAP webpage.

Only documents submitted on the platform will be taken into account when assessing project eligibility.

Only complete applications will be accepted. Please be sure to complete and sign all declarations and the application form.

Only documents submitted on the platform will be taken into account when assessing project eligibility.

Only complete applications will be accepted.

The application form is available on the call for projects website. It must be submitted dematerially on the dedicated submission platform.
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The selection is made in three stages:

1) Pre-selection
The first pre-selection phase is carried out by Bpifrance experts on the basis of the simplified application file. This pre-selection determines whether or not the project will be auditioned, according to the eligibility and selection criteria.

2) The audition
If your project is selected for the audition stage, you will be invited to submit a complete dossier. Auditions, held remotely, are based on a slide presentation of the project, and decide whether or not the project will enter the appraisal stage.

The audition lasts one hour, comprising 20 minutes of project presentation followed by 20 minutes of questions/answers with jury members.

The jury is made up of independent experts including healthcare professional profiles, technical experts, market access experts, AI platform experts as well as a Bpifrance sector expert.

The oral presentation is the final stage in the selection of projects evaluated and selected for hearings by Bpifrance experts. A technical / legal / economic and financial appraisal is then carried out by these experts, who can come back to you if they have any questions.

If your project is not selected in the first round, you will have the opportunity to find out why by contacting Bpifrance.
Our teams will be available to discuss with disappointed applicants and prepare for the next round of the Medical Imaging AAP, scheduled for March 26, 2024.

3 pick-ups are scheduled on the following dates:

• March 28, 2023 - relief closed
• September 26, 2023
• March 26, 2024