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ABOUT
UPM Innovation, the research think tank of UPM
Founded in 2015, Université Pour la Méditerranée (UPM) is a consortium that promotes cooperation and dialogue in the Euro-Mediterranean region. UPM is structured around three poles, a medical centre supported by Astarte, a social science and geopolitical pole, supported by the Reflection Group on Ethics in the Mediterranean (GREM) and France Proche-Orient, and thirdly by its technology, science and innovation pole. The aim of UPM is to stimulate reflection and action that contribute to the exchange and cooperation between Europe and the different mediterranean countries, societies and culture and promote the progressive construction of a space of stability, knowledge and dialogue. UPM is an alliance comprising academics, researchers, doctors, governments and civil society representatives. It is represented by its board members as well as its technical committee.
Its research think tank (UPM innovation) was created in 2024 by Kinda Chebib to foster knowledge and translate complex scientific and technological research into actionable policy recommendations. Acting as a hub for collaboration between researchers, policymakers, governments and the private sector, it provides evidence-based research underpinned by a multidimensional and inclusive approach.
Kinda Chebib
Head of Research, UPM Innovation
Founder of research think tank UPM Innovation for scientific and technological cooperation in Europe and the mediterranean region
Lead researcher at GREM,specialising in bioethics and the ethical application of AI and Blockchain in healthcare, education and financial services
OUR RESEARCH
UPM Innovation focuses on research around the applications of emerging technologies in healthcare, education and financial services, as well as on the key partnerships in the Euro-Mediterranean region leading to the acceleration of access to essential services.
Our team regularly engages with key stakeholders in those sectors, but also governments, technology providers, representatives from the public and private sectors, start-ups, academics, NGOs and other members of civil society, in order to improve the quality, relevance and impact of our research and to always provide fresh perspectives.
Our research also examines the ethical dimensions associated with emerging technologies and provides potential recommendations to mitigate issues linked to data privacy and data ownership, security, transparency and accountability, sustainability, data bias and fairness.
AI and Blockchain in nuclear Imaging
In 2024, UPM Innovation collaborated with the French Ministry of Health, the Medical Research Foundation and key med-tech startups to understand better how AI and blockchain can help improve healthcare services. UPM partnered with French medtech start-up Hera-Mi to provide evidence-based research on the role of AI in improving breast cancer early detection. In an effort to address healthcare challenges in particular in cancer screening, Hera-Mi introduced Breast-SlimView®, a pioneering patented decision support software dedicated to 2D and 3D mammography (tomosynthesis). The partnership between UPM and Hera-Mi currently focuses on raising awareness in the Euro-Mediterranean region of the benefits of AI application in imaging. In September 2024, UPM led in collaboration with Hera-Mi a series of Euro-mediterraneans actions and events including a symposium in Tunis around AI’s role in mammography detection assistance software and in cancer screening.
Watch UPM’s radiologists explain why they chose to integrate Hera-Mi’s artificial intelligence in mammography and hear cases demonstrating the technical relevance of the Breast-SlimView software.
By combining insights and data collected from the source (innovators, radiologists and imaging specialists), UPM Innovation’s research highlights the challenges in cancer diagnosis in the Euro-med region and showcases how AI-based technology can help accelerate early cancer detection and enhance the quality of diagnosis.
UPM Innovation also focuses on blockchain in healthcare research and clinical practice. Our team recently deep-dived into blockchain Swarm Learning, technology that helps to keep data stored locally in each hospital, with the learning algorithm moving from one hospital to another. Via current collaboration with French start-up Galeon, which uses blockchain technology to train AI medical models, but also help to keep medical data anonymous and hospitals operational during cyberattacks, UPM Innovation unveils the potential of blockchain technology to improve patient’s care and advance healthcare practitioner’s potential. Key patterns and insights can already be derived from Galeon’s applications in 16 hospitals in France, which are used by about 4000 caregivers as of September 2024, and enables medical research using more 500,000 patient records. This research allows healthcare actors to leverage French know-how in blockchain technology and learn from its concrete applications in healthcare . It also opens the door to extend Galeon’s collaborative network to the Euro-Mediterranean region via UPM Innovation partnerships.
Bioethics and the ethical use of emerging technologies in healthcare, education and financial services
Since 2017, UPM’s working group on ethics in the Mediterranean region (GREM) has been commissioned by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to conduct research on the ethical use of technology in healthcare. In July 2018, in partnership with the Ethical Committee of Biomedical Research of Casablanca (CERBC), GREM held the first symposium on Ethics Research in the Mediterranean Region. The research presentations and debates focused on ethics consideration in healthcare’s technological advancements, ethics in the field of assisted reproduction, but also bioethics and climate change.
Together with the ERER, the French Ministry of Health and other key actors in Europe and the Mediterranean region, UPM Innovation expanded this research in 2024 to explore the ethical use of AI and Blockchain in healthcare, education and financial services.
INTERVIEWS & PODCASTS
AI in healthcare
Watch UPM’s radiologists explain why they chose to integrate Hera-Mi’s artificial intelligence in mammography and hear cases demonstrating the technical relevance of the Breast-SlimView software
Podcast series coming soon!
