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Last week, on October 2nd-3rd, project partners and consortium members gathered in Barcelona for the second EOSC4Cancer General Assembly Meeting, discussing the progress made during the previous year and the next steps for the last stretch of the project.
Over 90 participants from partner organizations and beyond attended the in-person and online sessions, contributing to integral discussions on the project’s developments, growth possibilities, strengths, and future efforts. This assembly was a pivotal point in strengthening communication and collaboration among consortium members and partners before the project’s final months.
All Work Package leaders gave updates on the past year’s efforts, accomplishments, and plans for the upcoming stage of the project, while individual and parallel working sessions fostered collaboration and constructive discussions. One of the main focus points of this GAM was the Roadmap towards a European Cancer Data Space, to which a separate work session was dedicated.
Through group work and targeted questions, several ideas for further work on the timeline, sustainability of the Roadmap, use cases, and more were explored. Another key discussion during the two days was regarding the RDMKit Cancer View and ideas on how to populate it further and align it to the cancer journey, which is an ongoing challenge due to the diversity of cancer data.
On the second day, a talk on the dissemination and exploitation of research results was held by Francesco Gatto, Project Adviser with the European Research Executive Agency (REA). This presentation created space for a conversation on the usability of the data during the project’s lifetime and after, and proper communication of the milestones and outcomes of the project. New ways to effectively engage with patients were also explored.
Another presentation followed, given by Angelo Solimini of the European Commission, highlighting the upcoming steps of the European Union Cancer Mission. As this mission is a crucial pillar of EOSC4Cancer, it was important to align the project’s work with the EU Mission on Cancer, the EOSC family at large, and other initiatives like the Europe Beating Cancer Plan. Further, the Keynote session of the assembly was held by Luis Marti-Bonmati of partner project EUCAIM, who talked about building a federated data infrastructure for cancer imaging.
The assembly concluded with an open discussion about moving forward with the project and making sure its impact is sustainable. This GAM proved fruitful on all fronts, giving rise to new, exciting ideas and strengthening bridges between EOSC4Cancer and other projects, as well as within the consortium.
