Founded in 1559 by Jean Calvin and Théodore de Bèze, the University of Geneva (UNIGE) is dedicated to thinking, teaching, dialogue and research. It is Switzerland’s second largest university with more than 17’000 students of 152 different nationalities and about 2’900 researchers.Due to its high-level standards in research and its many disciplines, the UNIGE is ranked among the best three generalist French-speaking universities and among the 100 best in 20’000 worldwide universities. The UNIGE is also member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU). The Applied Physics Department (GAP), involved in this project, was set up in 1980 to facilitate the transition from fundamental physics to applications.

The Max Planck Society is Germany's most successful research organization with more than 15,000 annual publications in internationally renowned, scientific journals. The Max-Planck-Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen is an internationally leading research institute of exceptional scientific breadth and since 2022 the largest institute of the Max Planck Society. The new institute comprises more than 40 research groups and employs around 1,000 people from over 50 nations. The research of the Max-Planck-Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, which hosts the interdisciplinary group “Translational Molecular Imaging” at the City Campus, is focused on the understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying pathological processes of different diseases to design novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches with a “bench to bedside” strategy. The MPI is engaged in graduate schools e.g. Molecular Biology/ Neurosciences, MP School of Photonics, Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics and Molecular Biosciences.

LaVision BioTec was founded in 2000 in Bielefeld, Germany and specializes in the production of non-contact optical measurement systems for biomedical research and industry. The core competences are 2-photon and confocal laser scanning microscopy, light sheet microscopy, spectroscopy, FLIM as well as the development of evaluation algorithms and control programs for complex measuring equipment. Since autumn 2018 LaVision BioTec has a branch office in Göttingen working on 3D reconstruction, image restoration and analysis algorithms including AI, ML and deep learning (DL) for biomedical research and clinical imaging methods (including DICOM format). The core group of our employees in Göttingen was taken over from Scivis GmbH, which has been working on tomographic reconstruction and analysis algorithms for clinical needs for more than 20 years. LaVision BioTec has contacts and cooperations with many high-ranking scientists and sees itself as a pioneer of innovative optical technologies in the research markets. In the summer of 2018, LaVision BioTec GmbH became a Miltenyi Biotec Company, bringing the focus of the company's development even more into the clinical area.

The University of Lübeck (UzL) is a modern profile University focusing on life sciences, computing and biomedical engineering. The science-based educational concept at the UZL offers 27 Bachelor and Master programs to 5281 students. Based on the criteria established by the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) there are three major research foci: Infection and Inflammation, Brain Behavior and Metabolism and Biomedical Engineering. These research areas are currently supplemented by profile areas in Medical Genetics, Translational Oncology, Population Medicine and Health Service Research and Cultural Studies. UZL research programs are mainly characterized by interdisciplinarity between medicine, informatics and biomedical innovation, leading to numerous successful scientific activities that cover basic research and its translation for therapeutic and technological purposes. Luebeck`s scientific strategy benefits from an environment that integrates clinical and industrial partners as well as its own departments into one campus concept. Its third party funding consists of national and international programs with highly competitive reviewing processes, contributing to a continuous growth of industrial partnerships and international collaborations.

The Medical Laser Center Lübeck (MLL) was founded in 1986 as a non-profit research and development company for technology transfer in the fields of optics, biophotonics and laser medicine at the Hanse Innovation Campus Lübeck. The Hanseatic city of Lübeck is located in northern Germany near the Baltic Sea and Hamburg. Its mission is the conversion of innovative ideas and scientific findings from biomedical research and engineering to new or improved medical and biomedical products for diagnostics and therapy with and for our industrial partners. This technology transfer covers applied R&D and includes preclinical work, feasibility studies, and the development of prototypes for clinical trials under the Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) with clinical partners. More than 20 scientist and engineers with many years of experience work in the disciplines of optics, metrology, production engineering, realization of prototypes, regulatory issues and clinical studies.

Oniris is a higher education and research institution of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Oniris, located in the west of France in Nantes, trains about 1,100 students by offering two programs: doctor of veterinary medicine and engineer specialized in "agri-food / food" or "health biotechnologies". Both programs are involved in a wide range of subjects including animal health and public health, clinical and biomedical fields, health biotechnologies, food science and processing technology. Thanks to its accreditation to deliver the doctorate and masters, Oniris has a very attractive training research in connection with the various research organizations, INRAE, INSERM, CNRS, IFREMER, ANSES. Four main themes are developed within its research units: (1) "farm animal health" aimed to answer to food sufficiency issues, through the prevention and management of health crises but also in contributing to human health through the prevention of biological or chemicals hazards in the food chain; (2) "food and quality safety " contributing to the production of knowledge and methods to ensure the production of food with good sanitary, nutritional and sensory quality; (3) "Food Processes, Management and Sustainable Development" aimed at producing and evaluating innovative and sustainable agri-food processes to elaborate food that responds to industrial strategies and consumer expectations; (4) "Human, clinical and biomedical research, translational research" aimed at understanding the pathological mechanisms and producing innovative treatments for animal and human diseases.

KU Leuven boasts a rich tradition of education and research that dates back six centuries. The university’s basic research orientation has always been and will remain fundamental research. At the same time, the university remains vigilantly open to contemporary cultural, economic, and industrial realities, as well as to the community’s needs and expectations. From a basis of social responsibility and scientific expertise, KU Leuven provides high-quality, comprehensive health care, including specialised tertiary care, in its University Hospitals. In doing so it strives toward optimum accessibility and respect for all patients. KU Leuven is currently by far the largest university in Belgium in terms of research funding and expenditure (EUR 476 million in 2018) and is a charter member of LERU. KU Leuven conducts fundamental and applied research in all academic disciplines with a clear international orientation. In the Times Higher Education ranking KU Leuven is ranked as the 14th European university, while in the Reuters Top 100 of the World’s most innovative institutions, KU Leuven is listed as the first European university, for the fourth year in a row.

The Szeged Biological Research Centre (BRC), is an outstanding institution of the internationally acknowledged Hungarian biological research. At the foundation of the Biological Research Centre, in 1973, the guiding principle was to create a platform for modern multidisciplinary research, thus independent research institutes with different research profiles were established. The directors of the 4 institutes, the institutes of Biophysics, Biochemistry, Genetics, and Plant Biology are responsible for the main direction and quality of their respective research activities. The BRC employs about 260 scientists whose work is hall-marked by highly appreciated international scientific publications and patents. The research topics include several fields of molecular and cell biology from the industrial utilization of bacteria through controlled improvement of cultivated plants to the problems of human health and environmental protection. BRC is mainly a scientific basic research centre, but scientists of BRC play an initiative role in the foundation and promotion of biotechnological companies, as well as in educational duties. The successful activity and high-level scientific research pursued in BRC were also acknowledged by the European Molecular Biological Organization (EMBO) and in 2000 the European Union awarded the title of “Centre of Excellence“ to BRC.

Founded in 1994 as a Vilnius University spin-off, Light Conversion is now a major ultrafast laser technology company with over 4500 installed systems worldwide. Light Conversion designs and manufactures ultrafast lasers, optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) and oscillators (OPOs), optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers (OPCPAs) for industrial, scientific, and medical applications, as well as state-of-the-art transient spectroscopy systems. Light Conversion TOPAS and ORPHEUS series of OPAs constitute around 80% of the global continuously-wavelength-tunable ultrafast light source market, while ultrafast laser applications are covered by the industry-hardened PHAROS and CARBIDE lines. Now, with the introduction of the CRONUS systems, Light Conversion expertise is made available specifically for advanced microscopy applications. Light Conversion also produces HARPIA – a comprehensive femtosecond and nanosecond pump-probe spectroscopy and microscopy system. Light Conversion has over 15 years of experience in managing international R&D projects. LC is one of the key technology providers for the single-cycle SYLOS laser at the ELI-ALPS facility delivering CEP-stabilized 6.6 fs pulses with a peak power of 4.9 TW at 1 kHz. The company has successfully implemented EU structural fund projects, has considerable experience in managing projects under the FP7 program and other frameworks.

INRAE is the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment with more than 250 research and experimental units (within 18 regional research centers and in 14 scientific divisions). INRAE works in close cooperation with a wide range of external partners (higher education, regional governments, industry groups, SMEs, NGOs,…) supporting a continuum between fundamental research and applied research and fostering a cross-disciplinary approach. It has a well-established network of national and European-led research infrastructures providing the data and services required to advance public and private research. INRAE plays a major role in defining and aligning European research through its leading role within joint research programmes (such as FACCE JPI, Water JPI…) and partnerships (e.g. PEER) as well as by coordinating and participating in numerous European and international projects. Animal Health Division (AHD) of INRAE is composed of 633 permanent agents, 2/5 of them being located in the veterinary schools. Its research domains are related to i) all pathogenic agents, ii) host-pathogens interaction (immune response, inflammatory…), iii) epidemiologic processes, iv) some non-infectious diseases and v) therapeutics for animals and toxic hazards. Comparative pathology and clinical research is one of the orientations included in the AHD's strategic plan. In this respect, research in veterinary medicine and its development in the field of animal model for pathologies is one of the priorities. This is typically part of the “One World, One Health” initiative, which is promoted since 2004 by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and whose strategy is based on the analysis of the interdependence of human and animal population health. In Pays de la Loire region, INRAE is the 2nd largest public research organisation. Pays de la Loire research center of INRAE has a scientific policy that is shared with its five privileged academic partners and implemented by a community of more than 1,000 people, including more than a hundred PhD students. Its 13 research units are supported by two federative research structures, technical platforms and platforms, biological resource centres and an experimental unit.