Cancer now accounts for a quarter of all deaths and is the number one cause of death for people aged 45-64 in an increasing number of EU countries. Cancer is likely to remain one of the biggest killers in the 21st century.

Global research efforts to fight cancer have been ongoing since the 1970's to turn this disease into a chronic, instead of a fatal one.

Research in this area continues under Horizon Europe.

The past years have witnessed a dramatic progress in understanding the molecular mechanisms at work in the transformation of a normal cell into a cancer cell. Yet, our knowledge is still far from complete and much remains to be discovered.

Intensive collaboration between scientific, medical, technological and industrial communities is indispensable.

Research and innovation on cancer has been and remains a high priority for the EU.

Cancer has been designated as a mission area in the preparation of Horizon Europe, the next research and innovation funding programme.

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Funding opportunities

Horizon Europe

Funding for health under the research and innovation framework programme, Horizon Europe. 

Projects and results

Cancer research projects

EU-funded projects related to cancer research and innovation

Project success stories

Stories of particularly successful EU-funded research projects.

Results pack on brain research

A thematic collection of innovative EU-funded research results.

Collaboration and jobs

Find project partners

Look for project partners and view profiles of all organisations that have received funding via the funding and tender opportunities portal.

European Partnership for Action Against Cancer (EPAAC)

Partnership which brought together the efforts of different stakeholders into a joint response to prevent and control cancer. The partnership has now ended.

TRANSCAN-2

EU-funded project - a collaborative network of ministries, funding agencies and research councils with programmes in translational cancer research 

Innovative Partnership for Action Against Cancer

Brings together 24 associated partners (with affiliated entities, 44 partners) across Europe whose main objectives are to build upon deliverables of the Cancer Control Joint Action (CANCON) Joint Action and to implement innovative approaches to cancer control.

Cancer Control Joint Action (CANCON) 

The CANCON guide is the result of this joint action of cancer experts in 25 countries which ended in 2017.

EU Joint Action on Rare Cancers (JARC)

Framework for EU stakeholders and policy makers to set the agenda at national level and help provide diagnostics, healthcare and support to citizens who suffer from rare cancer.

Jobs (EURAXESS)

Researcher jobs in related fields

Scientific publications, tools and databases

European Cancer Information System (ECIS)

Latest data on cancer incidence and mortality in the EU

Horizon 2020 dashboard

Interactive reporting platform, composed of a set of sheets that allows series of views to discover and filter Horizon 2020 data.

Scientific publications

Scientific publications produced by the European Commission (JRC)

EU Open Data Portal

Single point of access to open data produced by the EU institutions. All data free to use for commercial and non-commercial purposes.

OpenAIRE

You can access all scientific publications from Horizon 2020 via OpenAIRE.