EURACAN 2022 - Bridging the gap towards a sustainable future of EURACAN services

ended

The establishment of the European Reference Networks for rare diseases and complex conditions (ERN) initiative in 2017, has been an unprecedented move across EU member states to improve the healthcare management of patients suffering from rare diseases and complex conditions through European collaborations. Since 2017, the overall ambition of ERN EURACAN is to establish a world-leading, patient-centric and sustainable network of multidisciplinary research-intensive clinical centres focused on rare adult cancers (RAC) with the underlying vision to: • reduce inequalities and drastically improve the overall quality of care of all European patients affected with RAC, • improve the understanding and knowledge of patients, families, health care workers, and doctors on these rare cancers, and • ensure an optimised access to clinical innovation in the field of RAC and across all Member States (MS). The ERN EURACAN is now in place and gathers 97 full members, 9 Affiliated Partners, 13 ePAGs and 23 Scientific societies, rare cancer networks, and research groups. The present EURACAN 2022 project - which is a bridging grant - aims at continuing the immense work started in the previous period, and lay the ground for what will be the cornerstones of the EURACAN activity for the next framework period. Specifically, we will: - Ensure the continuity of on-going secured ERN EURACAN activities that are crucial to its sustainability in the future. - Improve EURACAN’s capacity to disseminate and communicate with the ambition to reach out to more patients with RACs for them to have access to ERN EURACAN service - Improve the sustainability of the efforts and tools already developed by the ERN EURACAN so as to facilitate the further or new deployment of activities after this bridging grant. This will be done with the key support of all HCPs involved, associated partners in particular ePAGS and societies, through 7 work packages, over the 10 domains covering all solid tumor cancers.