A European Federated Cancer Research Data hub
Implementation and management of a European Federated Cancer Research Data Hub will have a pivotal role in UNCAN.eu strategy
A unified European Cancer Research Data hub
One of the key EU added values to cancer research might be to favour data sharing, especially when dealing with rare cancers. Coordinated data science approaches to extract knowledge from large-scale data of increasing complexity (clinical data, high resolution images, multidimensional biological information), e.g., by the use of tools of artificial intelligence (AI), will be of utmost strategic importance in UNCAN.eu initiative.
Exploitation of large datasets will depend on coherent data generation, collection, storage and management, as well as innovative analytic approaches (data-analytical and theoretical methods, mathematical modelling, computational simulation techniques).
Open Science practices
UNCAN.eu will promote the development of open science practices, encompassing the management of research software and data products, with every UNCAN.eu partner committing to FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) guiding principles for scientific data collection, management and stewardship. Such practices will require the definition of incentives for basic and clinical cancer researchers and healthcare providers in order to share their datasets through the federative hub according to the mentioned rules.
Mapping existing European infrastructures
The blueprint for UNCAN.eu will not describe an additional and independent initiative. Rather, 4.UNCAN.eu will map existing infrastructures and initiatives to identify the best model to support the collection and management of cancer research data with well-defined standardisation, robust interoperability and open access, enabling their reproducible use to better understand cancer biology.
The CSA 4.UNCAN.eu will also perform a comprehensive mapping of established and pan-European distributed ERICs (European Research Infrastructure Consortia; https://www.eric-forum.eu), which include major ESFRIs (European Strategic Research Infrastructure; http://roadmap2018.esfri.eu/), identifying those that offer key-enabling technologies and high-quality services that are relevant to cancer researchers.