canSERV User Stories

canSERV User Stories

canSERV User stories

Explore how canSERV is making a difference in the words of cancer researchers. These real-life success stories highlight the impact of our services in advancing cancer research and cancer innovation.
These user stories reflect the collaborative efforts between canSERV and its users, demonstrating how our cutting-edge resources and expertise are empowering researchers, clinicians, and innovators across Europe and beyond.

Dr Knud Esser
Principal Investigator Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and University Hospital Düsseldorf (UKD) Project:

Call: Challenge Call for “Service Provision on Advancing Personalised Oncology”

Project: “Development of a novel clinically applicable lipase inhibitor for personalised treatment of triple negative breast cancer and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma”

canSERV support: canSERV enables Knud to transfer his established screening setup to a high-throughput facility (Centre of Molecular Medicine Norway, Oslo). A high-quality compound library, containing 100,000 substances, is provided by EU-OPENSCREEN (Berlin).

Dr Pavla Bouchalová

Researcher, Masaryk University, Brno

Call: Challenge Call for Service provision on” Advancing Personalised Oncology”

Project: “Biomarker(s) predicing bevacizumab treatment response and alternative therpeutic targets in metastatic colorectal cancer.”

canSERV support: canSERV gives Pavla free-of-charge access to a large set (>1,000) of suitable biobank samples and high-quality services (genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics). These interconnected datasets will be analysed with AI-support.

Dr Adrian Torres

Head of R&D Aptadel Therapeutics, Barcelona, Spain

Call: Open Call for Service Provision

Project: “Anti-metastatic RNA aptamers for the treatment of EphA2-positive cancers”

canSERV support: The five granted services include protein production & X-ray crystallography (to characterise the aptamer binding site on EphA2) and biophysical analyses (BLI, to determine binding specificity/affinity). RNA sequencing and phospho-proteomics address changes of the affected signalling cascade. Finally, the project addresses the regulatory path to clinical application.

Dr Dace Pjanova

Tenured Professor Riga, Stradiņš University, Latvia

Call: Open Call for Service Provision

Project: “Whole exome sequencing to advance melanoma early detection”

canSERV support: “Through canSERV, Dace’s team will perform whole exome sequencing (Uni Łódź) of DNA samples from Melanoma patients recruited for the Latvian Genome database (LGDB). With a second canSERV partner (IFO, Rome), Dace’s team will be trained to search the datasets for unknown causal genes for Melanoma and related cancer types.”

canSERV User Stories

canSERV User Stories

canSERV User stories

Explore how canSERV is making a difference in the words of cancer researchers. These real-life success stories highlight the impact of our services in advancing cancer research and cancer innovation.
These user stories reflect the collaborative efforts between canSERV and its users, demonstrating how our cutting-edge resources and expertise are empowering researchers, clinicians, and innovators across Europe and beyond.

Dr Knud Esser
Principal Investigator Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and University Hospital Düsseldorf (UKD) Project:

Call: Challenge Call for “Service Provision on Advancing Personalised Oncology”

Project: “Development of a novel clinically applicable lipase inhibitor for personalised treatment of triple negative breast cancer and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma”

canSERV support: canSERV enables Knud to transfer his established screening setup to a high-throughput facility (Centre of Molecular Medicine Norway, Oslo). A high-quality compound library, containing 100,000 substances, is provided by EU-OPENSCREEN (Berlin).

Dr Pavla Bouchalová

Researcher, Masaryk University, Brno

Call: Challenge Call for Service provision on” Advancing Personalised Oncology”

Project: “Biomarker(s) predicing bevacizumab treatment response and alternative therpeutic targets in metastatic colorectal cancer.”

canSERV support: canSERV gives Pavla free-of-charge access to a large set (>1,000) of suitable biobank samples and high-quality services (genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics). These interconnected datasets will be analysed with AI-support.

Dr Adrian Torres

Head of R&D Aptadel Therapeutics, Barcelona, Spain

Call: Open Call for Service Provision

Project: “Anti-metastatic RNA aptamers for the treatment of EphA2-positive cancers”

canSERV support: The five granted services include protein production & X-ray crystallography (to characterise the aptamer binding site on EphA2) and biophysical analyses (BLI, to determine binding specificity/affinity). RNA sequencing and phospho-proteomics address changes of the affected signalling cascade. Finally, the project addresses the regulatory path to clinical application.

Dr Dace Pjanova

Tenured Professor Riga, Stradiņš University, Latvia

Call: Open Call for Service Provision

Project: “Whole exome sequencing to advance melanoma early detection”

canSERV support: “Through canSERV, Dace’s team will perform whole exome sequencing (Uni Łódź) of DNA samples from Melanoma patients recruited for the Latvian Genome database (LGDB). With a second canSERV partner (IFO, Rome), Dace’s team will be trained to search the datasets for unknown causal genes for Melanoma and related cancer types.”

canSERV position paper

canSERV position paper

Cancer research is a major focus of EU policy and funding programmes with projects facilitated by the Horizon Europe Mission on Cancer and the EU Beating Cancer Plan. These programmes have combined research and policy actions with financial support to make significant strides in the fight against cancer. As we look toward the 2025 Horizon Europe Work Programmes for Research Infrastructures, Health, and EU Missions, it is imperative that cancer research continues to be prioritised.

Life Science European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERICs) are instrumental in addressing the complexities of cancer research by providing both the necessary expertise and critical services to the research community. The canSERV project has further accelerated these efforts by consolidating over 400 unique cancer research services into a single, unified access platform.

canSERV not only simplifies access to cutting-edge resources but also defragments the European cancer research landscape, to support efficient and impactful research results. The canSERV project, aligned with the recommendations of the EU Cancer Mission Board, serves as a crucial component in advancing cancer research and innovation for the benefit of patients and society.

As we prepare for the next phase of the Horizon Europe Work Programmes, it is crucial to ensure that the momentum gained in cancer research is maintained and expanded upon, with continued support for projects like canSERV that play a crucial role in achieving the EU’s cancer mission objectives.

This position paper outlines our suggested priorities to maintain this momentum. 

 

 

Please read the canSERV position paper 2024

Third Open Call on Transnational Service Provision is OPEN

Third Open Call on Transnational Service Provision is OPEN

Want to be informed about canSERV news and updates?

Open Call for Transnational Service Provision

Under the canSERV Open Call researchers are welcome to apply to a portfolio of services offered by canSERV to address the research needs of the entire oncology developmental pipeline.

 

Submission Deadline:
28 November 2024 2pm CET

Your research project
  • Can vary from basic discovery science to translational science and translation into personalised oncology.
  • Is expected to address at least one of the four strategic goals of the Cancer Mission [1] (understanding of cancer; prevention and early detection; diagnosis and treatment; quality of life for patients and their families).
  • Your requested services timeline should fall within the canSERV project’s duration, FAQ Section “Time frames for the service provision”
If granted, you will benefit from:
  • Free of charge access to canSERV service(s) (equipment, expertise, resources) offered by the canSERV consortium.
  • Transnational services comprising the following fields: disease models, advanced cutting-edge imaging and structural biology technologies, biomarkers research and development, novel therapeutics developments, complex clinical trial design and support, personalised oncology implementation pipelines and recommendations, and regulatory support and tools to analyse the socioeconomic dimension of research activities. A detailed service list is available in the canSERV Service Catalogue.
For this Call, you should:
  • Select the service(s) you would like to use from the Catalogue.
  • Choose only services that are provided in a different country where you, or the majority of your research group, are based. See “Transnational Access” for exceptions.
  • Agree that data generated from the chosen services will comply with FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) making it available to other researchers while allowing for IP protection (in line with the EU’s open science policy). This will enable rapid execution of cross-European federated analyses of cancer-related data.

The indicative overall budget for this call is EUR 1.000.000, which can be increased in the event of many successful applications.

The Call is planned to remain open until 28 November 2024, 2pm CET.

Similar open calls are planned for the next year as long as funds are available.

 

Please note, applications are continuously evaluated over this period. The evaluation process takes 8-14 weeks, based on the complexity of the services requested. The evaluation criteria are based on excellence, impact, and quality of the submitted proposal.

How do you gain access to your service?

All communications are conducted through our easy-to-use platform: the canSERV Common Access Management System.

1. Selection: Enter CAMS, and select the services you are interested in.

2. Submission: After the selection step, you will be asked to fill in and submit our short application form describing your research proposal.

If you select services from Service Field 1 “Disease Models”, Service Field 2 “Advanced Technologies for Personalised Oncology”, Service Field 3 “Biomarker Research, Development, and Validation”,Service Field 4 “New Therapeutic Solutions”, Service Field7 “Access to Human Samples and Data”, Service Field 8 “Clinical trials and design”, please check the additional service field guidelines and consider these guidelines when submitting your application

3. Evaluation: An independent review panel (IRP) will evaluate submitted applications. The final decision will be taken by the canSERV Scientific and Management Board for approval or rejection based on the IRP evaluation outcome and available budget.

4. Service provision: If approved, the service provision may start either immediately or as agreed with the service provider/TNA manager. Enquiries related to your application and the offered services can be addressed any time using calls@canserv.eu (please add subject: “third open call”).

For a video tutorial, please check our Educational Webinar on “How to apply” for the previous First Open Call.

Transnational Access

What is Transnational Access (TNA)?

Transnational Access allows researchers (users, applicants) free of charge to specific research services (equipment, expertise, resources) offered by the canSERV consortium members` research infrastructure facilities.
Transnational access can be:

  • In person (physical access), with users visiting the research infrastructure facility/installation and receiving the service “hands-on”, including the advantage of direct collaboration.
  • Remotely (remote access), with research infrastructure resources and services offered online/remotely. This can span from just sending requested sample materials, to more comprehensive research tasks done by the research infrastructure staff on your behalf.

canSERV services are free of charge only when you (or most of your research group) are based in a country other than where the services are rendered. As an exception from this transnationality requirement, international organizations, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) or EU level multinational research infrastructures (ERICs or similar legal entities with international membership) are considered transnational actors and hence their service providing installation may be in the same country where the applicant researcher is based but not the same institution as the applicant. If you are not sure if the services you are requesting are included in the exception [2], please check the FAQ section “Transnational Access” or contact us at calls@canserv.eu.

This opportunity is open to all European and non-European researchers.

Eligibility

Application

Applications can be submitted by those individuals or organisations, who meet ALL the following criteria:

Who can apply?

Researchers based in European and non-European countries, including junior and senior individual researchers, academic institutes, biotech/pharmaceutical SMEs, groups of scientists, networks and consortia from public and private entities.

Affiliation

Applicants must be affiliated with an organisation in or outside the European Union.

Transnationality

This grant only supports TNA as described above in point one.

Dissemination

Results and/or data obtained from using the services provided under the canSERV Open Call must comply with the FAIR principles and might be shared initially with other ongoing initiatives within the EU Cancer Mission, EOSC4Cancer and, when established, UNCAN.eu, for the development and improvement of further services. Furthermore, the results and/or data will be reused within the canSERV project or other EU Cancer Mission initiatives at a certain time after service provision according to the canSERV user agreement. The data generated will then be included in the canSERV service list to support the canSERV Catalogue of Open Digital Research Services. If the results and/or data are published, canSERV must be acknowledged in publications. Only user groups that are allowed to disseminate the results they have generated may be eligible for access (unless the users are working for SMEs).

Evaluation

Evaluation criteria

Scientific evaluation will take into consideration the following three criteria:

  • Scientific merit and/or clinical impact of the research proposal
  • Justification to the solicited service
  • Feasibility of the proposal

Based on the evaluation outcome, the final decision will be taken by the Scientific Management Board of canSERV. 

Catalogue of Services

Disease Models

Field 1 - Disease Models

These models range from state-of-the-art in vitro models like 3D cultures, organoids and organs-on-a-chip towards in vivo, patient-proximate models and advanced precision cancer models generated using CRISPR-Cas9.

 
Advanced technologies for Personalised Oncology

Field 2 - Advanced technologies for Personalised Oncology

These services provide the cancer research community with access to cutting-edge services and technologies, as well as the associated expertise in their use, to address cancer research questions at a molecular, cellular and whole organism level.

Biomarker

Field 3 - Biomarker research, development, and validation

These services will provide access to cutting-edge and high-quality services (e.g., liquid biopsies, imaging biomarkers including radiomics, microbiomics, omics signatures, etc.) that will support the optimization of existing screening programmes, the advancement of novel approaches for screening and early detection, identification of new biomarker sets, as well as will contribute to the development of novel therapeutics based on molecular predictors.

New Therapeutics

Field 4 - New Therapeutic solutions

These services will provide access to a wide range of state-of-the-art services aiming to facilitate the development of novel therapeutic solutions for innovative personalised cancer research, as well as facilitate both clinical and translational research studies with focus mainly on: a) incorporate Small Molecules and Screening and b) Advanced Therapies and Biologicals Development Services.

Translation into Personalised Oncology Clinical Practice

Field 5 - Accelerated Translation into Personalised Oncology Clinical Practice

These services are specifically aimed at providing expert advice even to a single complex patient case or to a related finding or new discovery, so that patients can benefit from the results of cancer research possibly before the lengthy process of prospective clinical trials is completed.

Digital Research Services

Field 6 - Open Digital Research Services

These services aim to combine the complex landscape of reusable biomedical data and analytic tools in the context of tumour biology complexity, in order to provide unprecedented opportunities for the cancer community for the development of novel techniques and understanding of the impact of cancer diagnostics and treatment from a molecular to a population level.

Public health measures

Field 7 - Access to human samples and data

These services facilitate access to human biological samples and data. This will include provision of a) retrospective and on demand collections of high-quality biological material; b) high-quality associated data (i.e., OMICS, and clinical image data); and c) scientific advice on setting up state-of-the art related translational cancer research projects.

Clinical Trials

Field 8 - Clinical trials and design

Blindtext speaks the language of what it is designed for A Building must be sustainable to be beautiful (39)

Trainings

Field 9 - ELSI services

Blindtext speaks the language of what it is designed for A Building must be sustainable to be beautiful (39)

Trainings

Training

Blindtext speaks the language of what it is designed for A Building must be sustainable to be beautiful (39)

canSERV 3rd Challenge Call is CLOSED

canSERV 3rd Challenge Call is CLOSED

Want to be informed about canSERV news and updates?

Call for Service Provision on “Revolutionising Cancer Patient Care”

​The canSERV Consortium is pleased to announce the launch of its 3rd Challenge-Driven Call on “Revolutionising Cancer Patient Care: Innovative Approaches to Research and Clinical Trials for Improved Treatment Outcomes”. Cancer Researchers world-wide are invited to apply for free access to cutting-edge transnational services with an indicative overall budget for this call of EUR 600,000. The primary objective of this call is to improving treatment and patients’ outcome through innovative ways to address clinical trials and research.

Projects submitted in response to this call should focus on one of the two topics:
1. Tailoring research to address the different age groups, paediatric patients, and elderly patients, to ensure optimal treatment outcomes across diverse populations.
2. Designing and developing improved clinical trials to address diverse populations and expanding the scope to incorporate broader representation of patients from EU, including efforts to match control groups, thus advancing trial efficiency and equity in treatment access.
Please note that canSERV does not provide the actual funding for conducting clinical trials, users can apply for expert advice and support for planning and designing complex clinical trials

Projects supported through this call will play a significant role in furthering the overarching objectives of the Cancer Mission [1]

Your research project
  • Should address one of the two topics of the Challenge-driven call.
  • Should include at minimum 2 services from the canSERV catalogue. Training is considered as separate, additional service.
  • Your requested services timeline should fall within the canSERV project’s duration FAQ Section “Time frames for the service provision”
If granted, you will benefit from:
  • Free of charge access to canSERV service(s) (equipment, expertise, resources) offered by the canSERV consortium.
  • Transnational services comprising the following fields: disease models; advanced cutting-edge imaging and structural biology technologies; biomarkers research and development; novel therapeutics developments; complex clinical trial design and support; personalised oncology implementation pipelines, recommendations and regulatory support; open digital research services; access to human samples and data; ethical, legal and socio-economic (ELSI) dimensions and training. A detailed service list is available in the canSERV Service Catalogue.
For this Call, you should:
  • Select at minimum 2 services you would like to use from the Catalogue.
  • Choose only services that are provided in a different country where you, or the majority of your research group, are based. See “Transnational Access” for exceptions.
  • Agree that data generated from the chosen services will comply with FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) making it available to other researchers while allowing for IP protection (in line with the EU’s open science policy). This will enable rapid execution of cross-European federated analyses of cancer-related data.

The indicative overall budget for this call is EUR 600.000.

The Call is planned to remain open until 28 August 2024, 2pm CEST.

Please note that applications will be evaluated after the end of the submission period. The evaluation process takes up to 14 weeks. The evaluation criteria are based on excellence, impact and quality of the submitted proposal.

How do you gain access to your service?

All communications are conducted through our easy-to-use platform: the canSERV Common Access Management System.

1. Selection: Enter CAMS, and select the services you are interested in.

2. Submission: After the selection step, you will be asked to fill in and submit our application form describing your research proposal.

If you select services from Service Field 1 “Disease Models”, Service Field 2 “Advanced Technologies for Personalised Oncology”, Service Field 3 “Biomarker Research, Development, and Validation”,Service Field 4 “New Therapeutic Solutions”, Service Field7 “Access to Human Samples and Data”, Service Field 8 “Clinical trials and design”, please check the additional service field guidelines and consider these guidelines when submitting your application

3. Evaluation: An independent review panel (IRP) will evaluate submitted applications. The final decision will be taken by the canSERV Scientific and Management Board for approval or rejection based on the IRP evaluation outcome and available budget.

4. Service provision: If approved, the service provision may start either immediately or as agreed with the service provider/TNA manager. Enquiries related to your application and the offered services can be addressed any time using calls@canserv.eu (please add subject: “Challenge-driven Call 3″).

For a video tutorial, please check our Educational Webinar on “How to apply” for the First Open Call.

Transnational Access

What is Transnational Access (TNA)?

Transnational Access allows researchers (users, applicants) free of charge to specific research services (equipment, expertise, resources) offered by the canSERV consortium members` research infrastructure facilities.

Transnational access can be:

  • In person (physical access), with users visiting the research infrastructure facility/installation and receiving the service “hands-on”, including the advantage of direct collaboration.
  • Remotely (remote access), with research infrastructure resources and services offered online/remotely. This can span from just sending requested sample materials, to more comprehensive research tasks done by the research infrastructure staff on your behalf.

canSERV services are free of charge only when you (or most of your research group) are based in a country other than where the services are rendered. As an exception from this transnationality requirement, international organizations, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) or EU level multinational research infrastructures (ERICs or similar legal entities with international membership) are considered transnational actors and hence their service providing installation may be in the same country where the applicant researcher is based but not the same institution as the applicant. If you are not sure if the services you are requesting are included in the exception [2], please check the FAQ section “Transnational Access” or contact us at calls@canserv.eu.

Eligibility

Application

Applications can be submitted by those individuals or organisations, who meet ALL the following criteria:

Who can apply?

Researchers based in European and non-European countries, including junior and senior individual researchers, academic institutes, biotech/pharmaceutical SMEs, groups of scientists, networks and consortia from public and private entities.

Affiliation

Applicants must be affiliated with an organisation in or outside the European Union.

Transnationality

This grant only supports TNA as described above in point one.

Dissemination

Results and/or data obtained from using the services provided under the canSERV Open Call must comply with the FAIR principles and might be shared initially with other ongoing initiatives within the EU Cancer Mission, EOSC4Cancer and, when established, UNCAN.eu, for the development and improvement of further services. Furthermore, the results and/or data will be reused within the canSERV project or other EU Cancer Mission initiatives at a certain time after service provision according to the canSERV user agreement. The data generated will then be included in the canSERV service list to support the canSERV Catalogue of Open Digital Research Services. If the results and/or data are published, canSERV must be acknowledged in publications. Only user groups that are allowed to disseminate the results they have generated may be eligible for access (unless the users are working for SMEs).

 

Evaluation

Evaluation criteria

Scientific evaluation will take into consideration the following three criteria:

  • Scientific merit and/or clinical impact of the research proposal
  • Justification to the solicited service
  • Feasibility of the proposal

Based on the evaluation outcome, the final decision will be taken by the Scientific Management Board of canSERV. Applicants will be informed within a maximum of 14 weeks after the submission deadline if their submitted proposal has been accepted or rejected.

Catalogue of Services

Disease Models

Field 1 - Disease Models

These models range from state-of-the-art in vitro models like 3D cultures, organoids and organs-on-a-chip towards in vivo, patient-proximate models and advanced precision cancer models generated using CRISPR-Cas9.

 
Advanced technologies for Personalised Oncology

Field 2 - Advanced technologies for Personalised Oncology

These services provide the cancer research community with access to cutting-edge services and technologies, as well as the associated expertise in their use, to address cancer research questions at a molecular, cellular and whole organism level.

Biomarker

Field 3 - Biomarker research, development, and validation

These services will provide access to cutting-edge and high-quality services (e.g., liquid biopsies, imaging biomarkers including radiomics, microbiomics, omics signatures, etc.) that will support the optimization of existing screening programmes, the advancement of novel approaches for screening and early detection, identification of new biomarker sets, as well as will contribute to the development of novel therapeutics based on molecular predictors.

New Therapeutics

Field 4 - New Therapeutic solutions

These services will provide access to a wide range of state-of-the-art services aiming to facilitate the development of novel therapeutic solutions for innovative personalised cancer research, as well as facilitate both clinical and translational research studies with focus mainly on: a) incorporate Small Molecules and Screening and b) Advanced Therapies and Biologicals Development Services.

Translation into Personalised Oncology Clinical Practice

Field 5 - Accelerated Translation into Personalised Oncology Clinical Practice

These services are specifically aimed at providing expert advice even to a single complex patient case or to a related finding or new discovery, so that patients can benefit from the results of cancer research possibly before the lengthy process of prospective clinical trials is completed.

Digital Research Services

Field 6 - Open Digital Research Services

These services aim to combine the complex landscape of reusable biomedical data and analytic tools in the context of tumour biology complexity, in order to provide unprecedented opportunities for the cancer community for the development of novel techniques and understanding of the impact of cancer diagnostics and treatment from a molecular to a population level.

Public health measures

Field 7 - Access to human samples and data

These services facilitate access to human biological samples and data. This will include provision of a) retrospective and on demand collections of high-quality biological material; b) high-quality associated data (i.e., OMICS, and clinical image data); and c) scientific advice on setting up state-of-the art related translational cancer research projects.

Clinical Trials

Field 8 - Clinical trials and design

Blindtext speaks the language of what it is designed for A Building must be sustainable to be beautiful (39)

Trainings

Field 9 - ELSI services

Blindtext speaks the language of what it is designed for A Building must be sustainable to be beautiful (39)

Trainings

Training

Blindtext speaks the language of what it is designed for A Building must be sustainable to be beautiful (39)