Providing cutting edge cancer research services across Europe

Project Information

canSERV

Grant agreement ID: 101058620

DOI

10.3030/101058620

EC signature date 14 July 2022

Start date 1 September 2022

End date 28 February 2027

Funded under

• Research infrastructures

Total cost

€ 14 866 440,50

EU contribution

€ 14 866 440,50

Coordinated by

BIOBANKS AND BIOMOLECULAR RESOURCES RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE CONSORTIUM (BBMRI-ERIC)
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - canSERV (Providing cutting edge cancer research services across Europe)

Reporting period: 2025-05-01 to 2026-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

canSERVs 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.
A common access management system (CAMS) is developed based on mature solutions from INSTRUCT and BBMRI. The CAMS provides a method for selection of services, construction and submission of research proposals, multi-step review of research proposals, and tracking of the access process from approval through delivery to conclusion. Through a united user-intuitive transnational access where a united catalogue of more than 500 oncology services are offered, users 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:
1. 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.
2. To establish a single, unified, transnational access and training for all services.
3. To ensure data generated through oncology-related service provision will be fully compliant with the FAIR principles and complement and synergise with other relevant EU initiatives (e.g. EOSC, UNCAN.eu).
4. To sustain the network and unified resources of oncology-related service provision beyond the duration of the project long-term.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

At the end of RP3, the catalogue included 531 cutting-edge services from 167 service providers across Europe (objective 1). The catalogue offers users easy access to detailed information about the services within all 9 service fields and information about the service providers, including direct links to the service providers websites. The catalogue can be queried based on build-in filters and keywords that have been defined together with the canSERV consortium. As presented in RP1, the canSERV set-up the access management process and the workflow in the Common Access Management System (CAMS). In RP3, different functionalities of the Common Access Management System were further improved or newly developed to support all involved partners in the call phase, evaluation phase and service provision phase. The CAMS system is comprised of: (i) the call phase part that supports the user in selecting the services and submitting their applications, (ii) the evaluation phase that supports the TNA managers, TNA coordinators, IRB members, ethics experts and service providers to evaluate the received application based on the defined specifications and steps of the evaluation process, (iii) service provision phase that helps TNA managers and TNA coordinators to follow the service provision progress between users and service providers and it includes the follow up with the users on the return of the data.
By the end of RP3, a total of 447 applications had been received, requesting more than 1,000 services. Of these, 155 applications and 259 services were approved. The total approved TNA budget amounts to €8.8 million, with applicants from 29 different countries. Of the applicants, 61% are female, 38% male, and 1% non-binary.
Within the context of canSERV, the European Molecular Tumour Board Network (EMTBN) continues to have an important role in fostering the translation of discoveries made in cancer research, also through canSERV TNA services, into possible therapeutic options to consider for MTB recommendations. At the end of RP3, we had 266 registered EMTBN members from 39 countries, mostly from Europe but also from non-European countries (objective 4).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

EXPECTED IMPACT:
Scientific excellence: new breakthrough (fundamental and translational) scientific discoveries on personalised oncology through our users (access to our cutting edge RIs services).
Scientific excellence through capacity-building: canSERV contributes towards a new generation of researchers trained to optimally use all the necessary tools for their research.
Societal: canSERV contributes towards evidence-based policy for personalized oncology.
Societal: Using canSERV’s services, the society gains a better understanding of socio-economic implications for personalized oncology.
Societal: canSERV, through its users, contributes towards society’s long-term and consistent problem-solving capacity regarding oncology.
Societal: canSERV co-addresses 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.