AURORad, led by the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, promotes the safe medical use of radiation in Europe.

The AURORad project involves 109 organisations from 29 European countries. The organisations include medical institutes and research institutions, health and radiation protection authorities, professional associations, and hospitals.

The AURORad project coordinator is Ritva Bly, Chief Specialist at the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority. She points out that the safe and effective use of radiation requires professional expertise and well-functioning systems and practices for assessing the justification for the use of radiation and optimising radiation protection. The medical use of ionising radiation is an essential part of modern healthcare.

The use of radiation, for example in diagnostics, treatment planning, and cancer treatment, provides crucial benefits. Ritva Bly notes that many good and effective practices have been developed in European countries, but there are still differences in their implementation. AURORad addresses this by bringing together authorities and professional actors from different fields.

“When the project ends in 2031, recommendations will have been jointly agreed upon, tested, and can be implemented as harmonised national and local practices,” says Ritva Bly.

According to Ritva Bly, the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority was selected to coordinate the AURORad project because, based on previous projects, partners and the European Commission had strong confidence that this exceptionally large project could be purposefully completed under STUK’s leadership within the set timetable.

Approximately two hundred experts will participate in the project’s launch event at the Sofia Cultural Centre in Helsinki. Around 70 of them will attend in person, while the others will participate remotely. The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) and Directorate-General for Energy (DG ENER) are participating in AURORad. Radiation protection expert Filip Maksan from DG ENER will be present in Helsinki.