The ERA-NET TRANSCAN-2 (Aligning national/regional translational cancer research programmes and activities) is a collaborative network of ministries, funding agencies and research councils with programmes in translational cancer research.
The network is composed of 31 partners from 19 Countries (15 Member States, 3 Associated Countries and a third Country). (go to partners).
Its main objective is the coordination of activities of partners in the translational cancer research funding, avoiding the duplication of efforts and with a more efficient use of available resources.
The project aims at deepening and extending the cooperation among partners through exchange of information, harmonisation of funding mechanisms and assessment of results of the funded research projects, facilitating the transnational cancer funding in Europe and thus contributing to the building of the European Research Area.
Along this line TRANSCAN-2 launches Joint Transnational Calls for research proposals (JTCs). In the first, co-funded call (JTC 2014) national financial contributions are complemented with an EU contribution (co-fund model). The launch of 4 calls is planned.
The specific challenge is to promote transnational collaborative approach between scientific research teams in demanding areas of translational cancer research, aiming at the integration of basic, clinical and epidemiological research to produce significant results of higher quality and impact, and share data and infrastructures.
Further objectives of the project, structured in 9 Work Packages, are:
• to monitor the progress of the research projects funded within the first co-funded call as well as the additional planned JTCs, and to analyse the results in order to assess the performance of the funded projects with respect to the call scope
• to develop and update a strategy for enlarging the network of funding organisation and to promote the participation of all partners in the JTCs
• to identify scientific priority topics in translational cancer research, through a systematic exchange with the scientific community comprising interactions with relevant projects and stakeholders in the EU and world-wide
• to establish a communication, dissemination and networking strategy
