Context and overall objectives
canSERV’s mission is to make cutting-edge and customised research services available to the cancer research community EU-wide, enable innovative R&D projects, and foster precision medicine for patients’ benefit across Europe. By connecting, coordinating, and aligning existing oncology and complementary research infrastructures (RIs) and providing services in a synergistic way transnationally, canSERV will capitalise on the critical mass of experts and cutting-edge services offered by canSERV’s RIs and their extended network.
canSERV brings together world-class European life science RIs (BBMRI, EURO-BIOIMAGING, ELIXIR, EU-IBISBA, EuroPDX, EUOPENSCREEN, INSTRUCT, EATRIS, INFRAFRONTIER, EMBRC, ECRIN, EATRIS, MIRRI, ARIE, CCE, EORTC, and IARC) that collectively not only cover all aspects along the development pipeline for oncology but are also capable of interconnecting these technologies, providing users guidance for navigating them through the entire translational value chain. Two SMEs, ARTTIC and ttopstart, will provide valuable input regarding stakeholder engagement and project management activities.
A common access management system (CAMS) will be developed based on mature solutions from INSTRUCT and BBMRI. The CAMS will provide a method for selecting services, constructing and submitting research proposals, multi-step review of research proposals, and tracking the access process from approval through delivery to conclusion. Through a unified, user-intuitive transnational access where a unified catalogue of oncology services will be offered, our users will have access to a comprehensive service portfolio.
As our ambition is to scale up canSERV to a pan-European collaboration of RIs for accelerating the development and implementation of solutions for the cancer patient community, the sustainability of this network beyond the end of the project will also be addressed.
The key objectives of canSERV are:
- To offer at least 200 unique, cutting-edge Personalized Oncology (PO)-relevant services for life science research in Europe over the next three years.
- To establish a single, unified transnational access and training for all services.
- To ensure data generated through oncology-related service provision will be fully compliant with the FAIR principles and complement and synergize with other relevant EU initiatives (e.g., EOSC, UNCAN.eu).
- To sustain the network and unified resources of oncology-related service provision long-term, beyond the duration of the project.
Work performed and main achievements
In RP1, canSERV offered a robust array of 446 cutting-edge services from 132 service providers, all accessible through its online catalogue. This digital inventory not only furnishes comprehensive information about each service but also ensures user-friendliness with its intuitive search functionality, and continuously undergoing enhancements for optimal usability. Embedded within the online sphere of the participating RIs and service providers, this catalogue offers users easy access to detailed service insights.
Moreover, canSERV carefully set-up the access management process, and the TNA access management started with the support of the Common Access Management System (CAMS). canSERV launched three calls. The First Challenge-Call launched on 28.02.2023 was published in cooperation with other EU initiatives to provide use cases for the EOSC4Cancer-UNCAN.eu cooperation. As a result of this call, six applications were granted in an amount of 407,444.00 EUR, involving 13 services addressing data-driven treatment selection for localised tumours with multiple patient-derived data types to support novel treatment and diagnostics or precision treatment guidance for metastatic cancer, especially colorectal cancer, based on multiple sources. Within the context of canSERV, the European Molecular Tumour Board Network (EMTBN) has a crucial role in fostering prompt translation of discoveries made in cancer research, also through canSERV TNA services, into possible therapeutic options to consider for MTB recommendations. At present, we have 246 registered EMTBN members from 42 countries, mostly from Europe but also from non-European countries.
canSERV is aligned to and supports the EU Cancer Mission.
Results beyond the state of the art
EXPECTED IMPACT:
Scientific excellence:
- new breakthrough (fundamental and translational) scientific discoveries on personalised oncology through our users (access to our cutting edge RIs services).
- through capacity-building: canSERV will contribute towards a new generation of researchers trained to optimally use all the necessary tools for their research.
Societal:
- canSERV will contribute towards evidence-based policy for personalized oncology.
- Using canSERV’s services, the society will gain a better understanding of socio-economic implications for personalized oncology.
- canSERV, through its users, will contribute towards society’s long-term and consistent problem-solving capacity regarding oncology.
- canSERV will co-address societal challenges, Horizon Europe missions and partnerships’ objectives.
Economic/Technological:
- Cross-fertilisation and a wider sharing of knowledge and technologies across disciplines and between academia and industry and businesses that will be translated to economic and technological benefits with long-lasting impact and increased competitiveness for cancer research in Europe