In autumn 2023 the European Commission (DG CNECT in collaboration with DG RTD, DG SANTE and other services and Executive Agencies) organised three online workshops on the re-use of health data resources in the field of cancer research. The discussions focused on the data findability, accessibility, interoperability and availability, as well as on the use of AI and the future European Health Data Space.
The main goal of this workshop series was to boost the impact of EU support in the wider field of data-driven cancer research and innovation by demonstrating and fostering synergies between the respective projects. In more general terms, it supported the alignment with and effective contribution to the policy priorities of the current Commission, such as the European Data Strategy, the European Health Data Space, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the Cancer Mission.
A total of thirty-nine EU-funded projects supported under the Horizon 2020 (H2020), Horizon Europe (HE), Digital Europe (DIGITAL), EU4Health programme and Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) and a number of European Research Infrastructures participated and discussed the topics of access to data (legal & technical considerations), data interoperability and sustainability of cancer research data resources.
Three projects funded under the DIGITAL programme contributed to the discussions: the EUCAIM project deploying the Cancer Image Europe platform, which will make millions of cancer images and related clinical data available to medical professionals, researchers and innovators for development and benchmarking of AI-based imaging solutions in cancer care; the GDI project deploying the European Genomic Data Infrastructure which will be a federated infrastructure enabling cross-border access to genomic and related clinical data across Europe; and TEF-Health project deploying testing and experimentation facilities for AI and robotics solutions in health.
The infrastructures deployed by EUCAIM, GDI and TEF-Health, along with the upcoming activities under the AI innovation package, will support future development and deployment of trustworthy AI in healthcare in Europe and AI-based innovation in health.
A workshop report was prepared and published to summarise the very rich discussions during the three rounds. The report identified the themes and needs, as well as potential future actions that could be taken by the projects and on the EU level to ensure alignment and synergies among the projects.