NISTAS aims at developing a novel medical instrument - VascuLight (VL) - for fast and contactless screening of the status of the vascular system of human patients.NISTAS responds to the need for fast, reproducible, and widely available measurement of the arterial stiffness that is a recognised predictor of cardiovascular risk and mortality, and a potential marker for monitoring the beneficial effects of medical treatments for arterial diseases.The pulse wave velocity (PWV) is the speed of travel of pressure waves in the aorta and other arteries and is a demonstrated and accessible indicator of arterial stiffness. Today, the PWV is measured by contact techniques, but VL will perform PWV measurements via a contactless technique at a local (carotid, arm and leg arteries) and regional level (combined carotid-arm/leg measurements). The displacement measurement instrument consists of a light source and a sensor coupled to a control unit, where fast processing allows a prompt diagnosis.In NISTAS, 3 SMEs will lend their expertise to the common goal of realising the VL instrument, transferring photonic and electronic technologies so far deployed in other industrial fields to life science and medical areas. RTD Partners with clinical expertise will guide the consortium towards full clinical tests, with the goal of validating the effectiveness of the proposed method for vascular disease and risk diagnosis. NISTAS will also develop a complete path towards CE certification of the instrument, allowing an immediate exploitation of project results, supported by the planning of series production manufacturing by the involved SMEs.The NISTAS Consortium aims at the deployment of the new VL instrument at European hospitals and points-of-care, and expects to introduce PWV measurements at the same level of health dissemination as blood pressure measurement.