SPADnet (Fully Networked, Digital Components for Photon-starved Biomedical Imaging Systems) is a new collaborative research project funded by the European Union within the Information and Communication Technologies theme of its Seventh Research Framework Programme FP7. The project, launched on July 1, 2010, is coordinated by École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and it includes seven leading European experts on image sensors, medical imaging and photonics. SPADnet was granted €3.7 million in funding over a 42-month period. Its goal is to develop a new generation of smart CMOS-based, large-area networked image sensors for photon-starved biomedical applications, to build ring-assembly modules for PET imaging, and to carry out performance tests in a PET evaluation system.