Launching UNCAN-Connect

UNCAN-Connect: Decentralised Collaborative Network for Advancing Cancer Research and Innovation

Funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027), the UNCAN-Connect project (Decentralised Collaborative Network for Advancing Cancer Research and Innovation) addresses the HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01 Call. The project will run for 60 months, starting on September 1, 2025, and ending in August 2030, with a total budget of nearly €30 million (€29,935,701.50).

Coordinated by the University of Tartu (Tartu Ülikool) in Estonia, UNCAN-Connect brings together a strong multidisciplinary consortium of 53 organisations from 19 countries across Europe and internationally. The project aims to develop a decentralised collaborative network to advance cancer research and innovation, enabling secure, interoperable, and ethical access to cancer-related health data across the European Union.

The project will operationalise a collaborative framework that addresses both technical and governance components. It will facilitate seamless access to cancer data, promote open science, and revolutionise cancer research and treatment by co-developing an open-source platform - “UNCAN.eu”. The platform will be tested through specific use cases focused on six major cancer types, including paediatric, lymphoid, pancreatic, ovarian, lung, and prostate cancer.

The UNCAN-Connect Consortium, joined by the European Research Infrastructure BBMRI-ERIC, will also collaborate with initiatives such as EOSC4Cancer, CanSERV, and EUCANImage to ensure efficient data sharing, integration, and reusability across Member States. Ultimately, UNCAN-Connect aims to foster interoperability and accelerate scientific progress by supporting open science and strengthening collaboration among researchers, SMEs, patient representatives, public institutions, and citizens - thereby contributing to the EU Cancer Mission’s goal of improving cancer outcomes for all.