Federica Zanca and the EIC: a profile of a Programme Manager for Medical Imaging and AI in Healthcare

The European Innovation Council sets out to move disruptive science and deep technology into commercial and clinical use. Central to that mission are EIC Programme Managers. They curate portfolios, identify technology bottlenecks, convene stakeholders and try to steer projects from laboratory proof of concept to demonstrators and market uptake. Federica Zanca is the EIC Programme Manager responsible for MedTech, medical imaging and AI in healthcare. Her profile blends long academic experience with senior industry roles and consultancy work. Her public statements sketch both an optimistic technical trajectory for medical AI and an awareness that the EIC must actively manage risk and uptake.

A professional trajectory from laboratory physics to strategic portfolio management

Zanca’s entry into medical imaging started during her master studies at the University of Ferrara where her thesis tackled a monochromatic source for breast imaging. That early technical project motivated her to pursue a Ph.D. at KU Leuven in Belgium. She later became a professor and conducted research across mammography, computed tomography, interventional and general radiology, imaging perception and AI applications in healthcare.

After more than a decade in academia she moved into industry, taking senior research leadership roles. She served as chief scientist and director at GE Healthcare and was Head of R and D at a Swiss private diagnostic network. In 2018 she founded Palindromo Consulting which provided services to industry and hospitals. She has chaired the European Federation of Medical Physics working group on AI and authored papers on regulatory aspects of AI in healthcare.

What the role of an EIC Programme Manager entails

Zanca describes the programme manager role as an opportunity to influence patient outcomes and the trajectory of healthcare innovation. Programme Managers at the EIC combine technical stewardship with active portfolio management and stakeholder engagement. Their work has two main strands. First, they develop a strategic vision for a technology vertical and identify research and market challenges. Second, they manage portfolios of EIC funded projects to build the critical mass needed to overcome common gaps.

Practically this involves designing and promoting targeted Pathfinder Challenge calls, working with external evaluators to create cohesive portfolios, convening portfolio roadmaps and shared activities such as data sharing or market analysis, and facilitating routes to market through business advisory services, investor introductions and booster grants. Programme Managers also act as technical advisers in selection juries for Transition and Accelerator calls and as visible intermediaries in workshops, infosessions and international conferences.

Zanca’s vision for medical AI and where the challenges are

Zanca expects major advances in medical AI. She highlights what she calls more robust and efficient algorithms that need less labelled data for training. She foresees systems able to exploit unlabelled data and to fuse multiple sources of information. The long term picture she sketches is AI augmented precision medicine and connected care that replace one size fits all approaches with personalised diagnostics and therapies, improved clinical workflows and potentially more cost effective healthcare delivery.

While Zanca paints a plausible technical path, important obstacles remain. Clinical validation and prospective trials are costly and time consuming. Data access is limited by privacy rules and fragmented health IT systems in Europe. Bias and generalisability are recurring problems for AI trained on single centre cohorts. Regulatory alignment between the Medical Device Regulation, the future AI Act and agencies such as EMA is still evolving. Reimbursement pathways and clinical adoption depend on clear demonstration of patient benefit and workflow integration. These are not technical issues alone but require coordinated policy, procurement and clinical engagement.

How the EIC and Programme Managers can influence uptake

The EIC uses Programme Managers as active brokers who do more than grant making. They curate portfolios to create shared roadmaps for data, validation and market entry. They run Info Days and stakeholder workshops to attract applicants to targeted challenges. They can connect projects with Business Acceleration Services, investors and testing infrastructures. Zanca’s public activity shows an emphasis on building ties with regulatory bodies, clinical networks and investor communities.

Selected professional roles and outreach activity

Zanca combines the programme manager role with active public engagement. Her biography lists academic and industry leadership positions and a dense schedule of talks, workshops and convenings across Europe and internationally. She positions the EIC as a partner for startups, SMEs and clinical innovators navigating regulatory and market pathways.

Regulatory and ecosystem context in Europe

Zanca has framed regulatory work as part of her remit. Medical AI intersects with the Medical Device Regulation and the incoming AI Act. EU policy makers and agencies such as EMA, national competent authorities and clinical regulators are actively shaping rules for clinical evaluation, post market surveillance and transparency. Programme Managers can help innovators understand these requirements and facilitate dialogues between regulators, clinicians and industry.

Practical caveats and where to watch closely

The broad technical claims about data efficient foundation models and seamless multimodal integration are credible research goals. However they are not turnkey solutions. The science is progressing quickly but translation to safe, effective and equitable clinical tools depends on careful validation, appropriate governance, procurement incentives and clinical training. The EIC can reduce friction but it cannot substitute for the long horizon and investment needed for clinical evidence generation.

Programme Managers are well placed to spot promising technology gaps and to coordinate cross cutting actions such as clinical testbeds and regulatory science work. Their influence depends on the EIC's ability to fund translational milestones, to convene public and private partners and to tolerate the high failure rates that deep tech innovation brings.

Takeaways

Federica Zanca brings domain expertise spanning physics, clinical research and industry to the EIC. Her public statements map a future in which more efficient AI models and multimodal data fusion enable precision diagnostics and therapy. Realising that future within the European healthcare context will require more than better models. It will require reliable access to clinical data, robust validation pathways, aligned regulation and active convening between researchers, hospitals, investors and regulators. Programme Managers such as Zanca are a practical instrument for that convening, but success depends on patient level evidence and durable ecosystem commitments.

Disclaimer: This representation draws on public EIC materials and a March 13 2024 profile. It is provided for information and analysis and should not be taken as the official view of the European Commission or any other organisation.