canSERV’s first challenge call is closed and was a full success

The submission deadline for the first canSERV challenge call “Advancing Personalised Oncology” was 25 May 2023 at 2pm CEST and 41 proposals were submitted.

This is a great achievement and the entire canSERV consortium is very pleased with this successful start. The 188 applicants are spread over 15 European countries, which underlines the international and transnational idea of the canSERV project. Of particular interest to the canSERV research infrastructures and associated service providers is that on average 5 tools and services were requested per application. This shows the need and demand of cancer researchers to be able to individually select research services to advance their research.

canSERV – Providing Cutting Edge Cancer Research Services Across Europe

European wide research infrastructures, oncology experts, and patient associations team up to battle cancer

Brussels, 15 September 2022: The European canSERV project, aiming to defragment the landscape of European cancer research, kicks off in Brussels today. Over the next three years, canSERV will enable academia and industry access to cross-cutting services and support from basic science up to clinical translation to foster personalised medicine for cancer patients.

All services of the participating infrastructures will be bundled on a common platform which will go online within the next few months. canSERV will connect, coordinate, and align existing oncology and complementary Research Infrastructures (RIs) alongside providing services in a synergistic, transnational way. This will capitalise on the critical mass of experts and cutting-edge services offered by canSERV RIs and their extended networks.

canSERV key points

·        The EU-funded canSERV consortium will make innovative services available to cancer researchers, therefore supporting the goals of the EU Cancer Mission.

·        Funded services can be requested through canSERV’s single, unified transnational access platform, which will be built to integrate unique cancer research services from all consortium partners.

·        The consortium is committed to sustaining long-term, continuously offered access to current and future oncology services for Europe and beyond.

canSERV key objectives

·        To offer at least 200 different unique Personalized Oncology (PO) relevant and valuable cutting-edge services for life science research in Europe over the next three years.

·        To establish a single, unified, transnational access platform to request services and training.

·        To ensure oncology-related data provided will be fully compliant with the FAIR principles, and complement and synergise with other relevant EU initiatives (e.g., EOSC, UNCAN.eu).

·        To sustain the network and unified resources of oncology-related service provision beyond the duration of the project.

Overall, canSERV will accelerate the process of translating theoretical knowledge into personalised oncology clinical practice, that will give cancer patients faster and easier access to solutions and products.

Further project details

canSERV is aligned to and supports the EU Cancer Mission. When this mission was declared by the European Commission last year, they suggested that taking interdisciplinary approaches could be the key to accelerating cancer research and finding new treatment options. The canSERV project responds directly to this by providing new interdisciplinary and customised oncology services across the entire cancer continuum. This will provide a comprehensive portfolio of oncology-related Research Infrastructure services available to all EU member countries, and beyond.

Prof. Jens K. Habermann, canSERV Coordinator and Director General of BBMRI-ERIC in Graz:

“The canSERV consortium will meet the needs of EU academic and industry users and create a more effective, streamlined and defragmented European oncology RI landscape.”

Key to canSERV is the offer of world-class services valuable for all major stakeholders e.g., researchers, universities, institutes, high-profile SMEs, and European research consortia. The mission is to make inventive and customised research services available to the cancer research community, enable innovative R&D projects, and accelerate the development and implementation of solutions for cancer patients across Europe.

The cross-cutting canSERV consortium comprises 19 partners from leading EU Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERICs), Research Infrastructures (RIs), scientific societies, and patient associations. Each partner contributes unique services and developments to canSERV.

Thanks to the transnational collaboration and complementarity of the consortium, canSERV will provide the widest and most comprehensive portfolio in cancer research, taking the scientific excellence in Europe, and beyond, a major step forward. Open calls to the worldwide cancer community for the provision of funded services will be announced over the common platform and will be advertised widely across the cancer community.

Please find here the Press Release as pdf.