The third Annual Meeting of the TARGET project took place in Thessaloniki, Greece, bringing together consortium partners for two days of discussion, updates and collaborative work. The meeting was hosted by the Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH) at its premises, offering partners the opportunity to take stock of the project’s progress and align on the next steps.

Across the two days, the consortium focused on several key areas of the project, moving between technical, methodological and clinical discussions. A central part of the meeting was dedicated to the co-design and co-development of the interfaces for the TARGET tools, ensuring that the solutions being developed remain closely connected to the needs of future users and clinical settings.

Partners also shared updates on the four clinical studies connected to the project — NOTE-AF, TAILOR, PEARL and FOSTER. These studies are an important part of TARGET’s work to validate personalised tools and virtual twin models, supporting the project’s broader ambition to improve prevention, management and rehabilitation pathways for stroke related to atrial fibrillation.

The meeting also provided space to discuss progress across both the methodological and clinical streams of the project. These conversations helped partners reflect on current achievements, address open challenges and further connect the different strands of TARGET’s work, from AI-driven virtual twin models to clinical decision-support tools.

One of the highlights of the meeting was the cluster event “Toward the Virtual Human: Multi-Organ Digital Twins for Cardiovascular Medicine”, organised together with the sister projects VITAL Horizon Europe and DTH-GEMINI. Bringing together more than 80 participants, both online and in person, the event provided a valuable platform to discuss the shared vision of the three projects: advancing virtual twin technologies to support personalised medicine and improve clinical decision-making in cardiovascular and stroke care.

The programme explored key challenges and opportunities in the development of virtual human technologies for healthcare, including AI-driven approaches for cardiovascular and stroke care, multi-scale modelling for personalised medicine, digital twins for rehabilitation prognosis and clinical decision support, and hybrid modelling and in silico technologies. The event fostered engaging discussions and knowledge exchange among researchers, clinicians and stakeholders, highlighting the potential of collaborative efforts to accelerate innovation in digital health and personalised healthcare.

Beyond the formal agenda, the meeting was also an important opportunity to strengthen the relationships within the consortium. In-person discussions, informal exchanges and shared reflections helped reinforce the collaborative spirit of the project and opened up new conversations on the future impact TARGET can create for patients, caregivers, clinicians and healthcare systems.

A warm thank you goes to all partners who joined the meeting and contributed actively to the discussions, and a special thanks to CERTH for welcoming the consortium in Thessaloniki and providing an excellent setting for two productive and engaging days.