Cancer- healthcare, research and innovation face core common challenges, such as fragmentation of initiatives and distancing from important stakeholders, requiring coordinated solutions. These challenges are recognized in Horizon Europe’s Cancer Mission Implementation Plan and in Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. The proposal Establishing of Cancer Mission Hubs: Networks and Synergies (ECHoS) represents a unique opportunity to coordinate R&I and Healthcare actions on cancer with policy-making processes creating transnational communication & collaboration networks aligned with Cancer Mission objectives. Experiences shows that the setup and implementation of innovative health solutions are more likely to be successful when a broad range of stakeholders and decision-makers from the public and private sectors are part of the process. By fostering the creation of National Cancer Mission Hubs (NCMHs) in member states and associated countries ECHoS will create the conditions for organized stakeholders and individual citizens to collaborate and engage in policy dialogues. The implementation of the Cancer Mission objectives will promote more resilient and people-centric healthcare and research systems. ECHoS will produce (i) general models and guidelines for the creation of sustainable NCMHs, (ii) a knowledge exchange programme to support development of NCMHs competences, (iii) impact models and training sets to help efficiently engaging with distinct stakeholders, (iv) a toolkit for synergies to help NCMH engaging in collaborative work with individual European Initiatives, (v) a business continuity model envisaging long-term sustainability of a EU network of NCMHs and (vi) a calendar of events to create awareness on NCMHs and to help closing the gap in citizens’ participation in cancer policy. In summary, ECHoS will create conditions for NCMHs to be Mission Cancer advocates in MS/AC and set the pace for the development of a transnational network of NCMHs in a second phase.

ERA4Health Partnership Phase 2 is aimed to integrate new additional activities to the current ERA4Health Partnership. The main ambition of the partnership it is the contribution to the goal of Europe to be at the forefront of science and innovation in Health Research by 2050 and enhancing the biomedical research to provide a better health for citizens, not only in Europe but at international level. To be able to achieve this aim, ERA4Health Phase 2 will pursue the following specific objectives: SO1. Support relevant medical research including clinical fields and intervention areas (prevention, diagnosis, treatment) SO2. Improve the utilisation of existing health technologies in clinical practice SO3. Build capacity, in particular in conducting IICSs at European scale SO4. Implement and advance the practice of RRI across the breadth of the programme This Phase 2 of the Partnership will continue supporting relevant medical research and new knowledge generation in the research priority areas stablished in the ERA4Health long-term Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), with a particular focus devoted to support and fund multi-country Investigator-Initiated Clinical Studies (IICS). The research priority areas included in the SRIA are: nutrition and life-style related diseases, prevention and public health strategies, cardiovascular diseases, nano and advanced technologies for disease prevention, diagnostic and therapy. ERA4Health will fund non-commercial multi-country IICS to enhance this impactful and added value clinical research. The additional activities in ERA4Health Phase 2 will serve to provide support and building capacity in conducting multi-country IICSs and to overcome the identified challenges and obstacles in these type of IICSs.