Cancer Research UK has announced its international partnership with France’s Institut National Du Cancer (INCa), investing £8.6m to drive world-class global cancer research.
As part of the global Cancer Grand Challenges initiative, the partnership will help fund world-class researchers to take on cancer’s toughest challenges.
Claiming almost ten million lives every year, cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide.
The INCa is currently the first to pledge funds to support several teams in a single round of the Cancer Grand Challenges initiative, as well as the initiative’s original founding partners, Cancer Research UK and the US National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Since its founding in 2020, more than £210m has been invested in the initiative, which aims to build a scientifically elite, interdisciplinary community to fill knowledge gaps in cancer and drive progress.
The initiative comprises diverse international organisations, collaborators and research leaders, including the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer, the Dutch Cancer Society and the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research.
As part of the agreement, the INCA’s investment will assist in funding the next round of Cancer Grand Challenges teams.
Currently, there are 12 shortlisted teams that are competing to secure £20m for global research. The winning teams will be announced in March 2024.
The INCa’s participation aims to help further expand the international reach of the Cancer Grand Challenges initiative, as France’s biggest cancer research institute looks to take on cancer’s biggest challenges and deliver impactful research.
Professor Norbert Ifrah, chief executive officer, and Thierry Breton, director general of the INCa, said: “Cancers with a poor prognosis are a major public health challenge which we need to address with the kind of breakthrough science that Cancer Grand Challenges supports.”
David Scott, director of Cancer Grand Challenges at cancer research UK, added: “Through the support of the INCa and Cancer Research UK’s other global partners, our international teams will be given the freedom to think differently, act creatively and take on some of the toughest challenges in cancer.”
In May, the INCa joined the G7 Cancer Initiative alongside six other international organisations, including Cancer Research UK, in Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan and the US.