Our partners in Europe!
We collaborate with a wide range of organizations to draw on their expertise and to ensure the highest coordination in development efforts. These partnerships help us reach our goals and desired targets with the necessary support, while boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of development aid.
The involved Department is the R&D one that was established in 2018 specializing in research funding in health and social matters in collaborative competitive calls at EU and international levels. We participate, both as coordinator and partner, in several research projects funded by the European Union such as HORIZON 2020, ERASMUS+ and EEA Grants, the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation and other sources.
GATEKEEPER
GATEKEEPER is a European Multi Centric Large Scale Pilot on Smart Living Environments, with 42 European partners and nine pilots across seven countries. The main objective is to enable the creation of a platform that connects healthcare providers, businesses, entrepreneurs, and elderly citizens and the communities they live in, ensuring healthier independent lives for the ageing population. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement Nº 857223.
The project is described at: www.gatekeeper-project.eu
EUROPEAN FAIR PRICING NETWORK (EFPN)
PASYKAF is launching a European collaboration collective which aims to put an end to expensive cancer drugs. Patients must be given better access to new drugs by directly linking research conducted into the price and availability of cancer drugs in several European countries to lobbying. This is the very first time this problem is being tackled on this scale. PASYKAF has taken on a pioneering role in Europe with the establishment of this collective.
The European Fair Pricing Network (EFPN) strives for fair and clear pricing and a transparent market for new and expensive cancer drugs. The EFPN was founded by PASYKAF and other European cancer organisations from more than 10 different countries.
The European Fair Pricing Network (EFPN) aims to achieve fair prices for cancer medicines and, more broadly, works towards a pharmaceutical market which produces accessible and truly innovative medicines for patients.
INCISIVE PROJECT
Although artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) provide unprecedented opportunities for improved cancer detection, various technical challenges as well as a lack of data availability hamper their utilisation. The EU-funded INCISIVE project aims to develop a toolbox for enhancing the accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of existing cancer imaging methods. The idea is to generate a pan-European repository of medical images that can be used for ML-based training for various types of cancer. The project’s deliverables will assist the accurate prediction of tumour spread, evolution and relapse, in addition to helping stratify patients.
The project is described at: https://incisive-project.eu/
Across Europe, receiving a timely cancer diagnosis and surviving the disease differs considerably because of inequalities in preventive policies, and access to state-of-the-art diagnostics, treatments, and care. The projection is that the number of diagnosed cancer cases may increase by a fourth by 2035. The increased use of telemedicine in healthcare is a new window of opportunity for responding to population health crises, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, there is much room for improvement in the deployment of digital interventions for cancer patients both at the EU-Member States (MS) and EU level; there are also legal and ethical questions that remain a concern.
JOINT ACTION ECAN
The ECAN project is a joint action of the European Union to strengthen eHealth, including telemedicine and remote monitoring for healthcare systems for cancer prevention and care (eCAN).
The total budget of the project amounts to 4 million euros and 16 Member States participate, including Cyprus. (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, and Slovenia).
The Cypriot team is coordinated by the National Electronic Health Authority and it consists of the Pancyprian Association of Cancer Patients and Friends (PASYKAF), the German Oncology Center (GOC), the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Center (BOCOC), and the Cyprus University of Technology (TEPAK). These institutions are participating as collaborating bodies. The Cyprus team has undertaken a very important role in the project concerning the development of the application for telemonitoring and telemedicine. The financing percentage of the Cypriot participation amounts to around five hundred fifty thousand euros.
The Joint Action eCAN aims to bring the benefits of eHealth to all citizens and patients across the MS, especially for those living in remote and rural areas. The project involves also 36 key partners working in public health institutes, universities, hospitals, cancer centers, and patient associations across Europe. Over the course of this two-year project (2022-2024), the consortium will explore the impact of teleconsultation and telemonitoring by conducting multi-centric pilots in different populations of cancer patients. In particular, Patient Reported Outcomes and Experiences will be monitored by dedicated telemonitoring systems, and a secure platform will provide dashboards for decision support enabling future Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications.
PROTECT EUROPE
PROTECT-EUROPE is an EU4Health Project that champions gender-neutral vaccination programme in EU Member States to provide protection for everyone against cancers caused by HPV e.g. cervical, anal, penile, vaginal, vulval and oropharyngeal.
ECO is coordinating this EU Project under the EU4Health Programme 2021-2027 and leading the project communication, dissemination and exploitation efforts in consultation with other 33 project partners.
The project provides Member States with guidance on:
- Communication on HPV vaccination between clinicians and young people and their parents/caregivers
- Developing effective public health messaging on HPV vaccination aimed at young people and their parents/caregivers
- Proposing innovations that improve uptake (e.g. bundling adolescent vaccines)
PASYKAF also participates in the program with 32 other corresponding European organizations in more than 16 European countries.
BUMPER
The development of the EU Mobile App for Cancer Prevention is one of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan’s flagships initiatives to tackle the entire cancer disease pathway.
BUMPER aims at interfacing with the action that will design and programme the EU Mobile App itself and provide guidance on the content and focus of the App, contributing to ensuring its scientific validity.
The project will mainstream in all tasks and activities an evidence-based approach for addressing health literacy by engaging with a variety of end-users to understand potential barriers and facilitating factors for using digital health tools such as the App, and providing direct training to future promoters of the App.
BUMPER has received funding from the EU4Health (European Union) program under Grant Agreement No 101079924.
An innovative cancer prevention initiative
In Europe, combating cancer’s early roots, often initiated during adolescence, is a pressing challenge. The EU-funded SUNRISE project aims to tackle this by introducing a digitally enhanced life-skills programme. Tailored to diverse socio-economic, cultural, and environmental backgrounds, SUNRISE integrates evidence-based smoking prevention tools with innovative approaches like peer social media campaigns, advertising literacy training, educational games, social robots and conversational assistants. Developed through schools-as-living-labs collaboration with educators, adolescents, parents, and experts, the programme will be implemented across 154 schools and 7 500 students in eight countries. SUNRISE strives to redefine cancer prevention for adolescents through effective strategies and sustainable solutions.
