RS2D

Their core work

RS2D is a French SME that designs and manufactures specialized MRI instrumentation for research applications, including low-field MRI systems and hardware for hyperpolarization experiments. Their industrial role in both H2020 projects is as a technology provider: they bring the physical instruments that make advanced imaging protocols possible in a laboratory setting. Their work spans the full chain from hardware engineering to system integration, enabling scientists to test unconventional imaging modalities that standard clinical MRI scanners cannot support. They are a niche manufacturer at the intersection of physics instrumentation and biomedical imaging research.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

RS2D entered H2020 collaboration through the lens of alternative contrast agents — their first project (2019) was about replacing gadolinium with safer, hyperpolarized molecular probes, which is a chemistry-adjacent challenge requiring specialized MRI hardware. By 2021 their second project had shifted to a more ambitious convergence: merging MRI with nuclear medicine (SPECT), introducing radiotracers, gamma detectors, polarized radioactive nuclei, and pre-clinical stroke imaging. The trajectory is clear: from supporting contrast agent research toward enabling fundamentally new hybrid imaging modalities that blur the line between MRI and nuclear imaging.

RS2D is moving from being a specialist MRI hardware supplier toward becoming a platform builder for next-generation multimodal imaging systems — making them a relevant partner for any consortium working on pre-clinical molecular imaging, nuclear medicine integration, or low-field MRI applications.

How they like to work

RS2D has participated exclusively as a consortium partner — never as project coordinator — across both H2020 projects, which is consistent with a technology SME that contributes instrumentation rather than scientific leadership. What is striking is the scale: 16 unique partners across 10 countries from just two projects, indicating they are placed in large, internationally distributed research consortia typical of FET and RIA funding. This suggests RS2D is valued as a specialist technology node that different research groups seek out, rather than an organization that assembles its own collaborative networks.

Despite only two projects, RS2D has built a network of 16 consortium partners spanning 10 countries, reflecting the broad, multi-institution character of FET Research and Innovation Actions. Their geographic reach is solidly European, with no evidence of extra-European partnerships.

What sets them apart

RS2D occupies a rare niche: they are one of very few SMEs in Europe that manufacture MRI research systems capable of operating in the unconventional regimes required by hyperpolarization and hybrid imaging experiments — low field strengths, custom pulse sequences, and detector integration that off-the-shelf clinical scanners cannot provide. For a consortium needing a physical instrument builder who understands the physics of DNP, SEOP, or gamma-MRI, there are few comparable companies at this scale. Their SME status also makes them attractive for EU consortia that need industrial partners without the overhead and IP constraints of large corporations.

Highlights from their portfolio

• GAMMA-MRI
  The largest of RS2D's two funded projects (EUR 757,711) and one of the most technically ambitious — combining MRI with SPECT gamma detection and polarized radioactive nuclei to create a new class of pre-clinical molecular imaging, with direct application to stroke and brain pathology.
• AlternativesToGd
  Addresses a pressing regulatory and safety concern in clinical MRI — the toxicity of gadolinium contrast agents — by developing hyperpolarized molecular alternatives, giving RS2D direct exposure to translational medical imaging research.