Cancer research and innovation do not happen in isolation and neither does the EU Cancer Mission. One of the Mission’s defining features is its cluster approach, which brings together projects funded under the same call topic to build synergies and joint activities, mobilising the cancer research community and maximise impact.
To understand what this looks like in practice, the EU Cancer Mission team spoke with two coordinators working in the Mission objective Prevention and Early Detection: Professor Klaus Pantel, Coordinator of the PANCAID project from the Screening cluster and Dr Marius Geantă, Coordinator of the 4P-CAN project from the Implementation Research cluster.
A catalyst for exchange in prevention and early detection research
PANCAID focuses on the early detection of pancreatic cancer using blood-based biomarkers and is part of the Prevention and Early Detection – Screening cluster. For Professor Pantel, engaging in the cluster was driven by the opportunity to learn from projects using different early detection approaches.
“It was very good for us to see the different approaches that colleagues use to detect cancer and to do cross-comparisons”, he explains.
Within the cluster, projects work on different cancer types and technologies – from liquid biopsies to imaging-based screening. This diversity allows teams to reflect on whether signals identified for one cancer might be relevant beyond a single tumour type and to better understand where approaches overlap or diverge.
From Mission objectives to place-based prevention
For 4P-CAN, the motivation to engage in the Prevention and Early Detection -Implementation Research cluster comes from a different starting point. The project focuses on reducing preventable cancer risk factors and inequalities through real-world implementation, something Dr Geantă stresses cannot be achieved by a single project alone.
“The cluster acts as a bridge between the Cancer Mission objectives and place-based action”, he explains. It allows 4P-CAN to position the Lerești Living Lab as a practical testbed for implementation, while connecting its innovation agenda – including the use of network analysis to understand social influence and behaviour change – with complementary expertise across Europe.
Working within the cluster has brought what Dr Geantă describes as “scale, speed and credibility”. It has enabled comparisons across countries, helped stress-test Living Lab methods and strengthened the transferability of prevention models beyond their original context.
Sharing challenges, tools and lessons learned
Both coordinators emphasise that clusters are not only about sharing results, but also about exchanging on how projects work. Professor Pantel highlights shared operational challenges, such as data protection and administrative burden, which can delay projects significantly. Cluster discussions allow coordinators to compare approaches and explore common solutions.
For 4P-CAN, cluster participation has made collaboration more outward-facing and impact-driven. “We increasingly share the ‘how-to’ asset”, Dr Geantă notes, from engagement formats to governance templates and frame results in Mission-relevant terms. The cluster also provides a space to align methods and jointly refine innovation so they are more robust and reusable.
Thinking ahead
Professor Pantel also shared insights into how the EU Cancer Mission clusters could remain sustainable and impactful in the long term, drawing on experience from previous EU-funded networks. One model that has proven effective at maintaining the momentum after the conclusion of an earlier EU project is the European Liquid Biopsy Society (ELBS). By introducing a small annual membership fee, coordination could continue while research moved forward through national funding. What began with 39 institutions has since grown to 101 across Europe and beyond – a potential model for sustaining cluster benefits over time.
An invitation to engage early
Despite initial hesitation, both coordinators strongly encourage active involvement in clusters. For Professor Pantel, the value became clear after just a few meetings. For Dr Geantă, the cluster acts as an “impact multiplier”, helping translate local innovation into reusable models.
Their shared message is clear: engage early, share openly and use clusters to turn individual project results into collective progress for the EU Cancer Mission.
The EU Cancer Mission welcomes the positive experiences emerging from the cluster approach and looks forward to learning more as this work continues. In addition to research collaboration, clusters also play a key role in communication, policy and citizen engagement activities. Projects contribute jointly to outputs such as policy briefs, citizen engagement summaries, videos and leaflets, helping ensure that research findings are accessible, usable and aligned with Mission priorities. Clusters are also expected to engage with National Cancer Mission Hubs (NCMHs), strengthening links between European-level research and national and local implementation, and supporting the uptake of results by policymakers, practitioners and citizens alike.
