The meeting, organized by Biosistemak, was held on October 3, 2023, in the online format.

The first meeting between key actors of the Joint Action JANE (Joint Action on Networks of Expertise) brought together representatives of the Member States participating in the project. The objective was to establish a dialogue aimed at sharing knowledge in order to work together to find solutions to ensure the sustainability of future cancer knowledge networks in Europe.

This first Policy Dialogue was attended by 10 members of the Policy Board and members of different organizations participating in JANE. The session started with the presentation of the work done by Biosistemak focused on sustainability and the update of the status of the project in its first year of operation by the coordination team. The second part of the meeting included two thematic modules, the collaboration between organizations in the framework of health ecosystems, and European policies. Each module featured a presentation by an invited speaker, which then gave way to the participation of all members of the Policy Dialogue in the form of panel discussions.

The first module entitled “How to create alliances and synergies with potential in the European ecosystem”, was led by EURACAN Coordinator, Jean-Yves Blay. The objective was to present key aspects for the promotion and strengthening of collaboration between different organizations in the European ecosystem (comprehensive cancer centres, European reference networks, societies, etc.). As key aspects, the importance of creating European Reference Networks in different topics as models of inspiration and learning for the implementation of NoEs (Knowledge Networks) was highlighted. Likewise, the need to work on the development of a clear governance structure that allows the coordination of actions for the generation of knowledge and the strengthening of national and European reference centres was highlighted.

The second module was entitled “How to ensure the alignment of NONEs with European and national policies” and was presented by Matthias Schuppe, Deputy Head of Unit at DG SANTE B.1 “Cancer, Health in all policies”. The panel focused on finding possible solutions to ensure alignment of future NoEs with European and national policies and discussed the possibility of including proposals to foster collaboration, promote visibility of networking, and create platforms to share challenges and best practices among Member States.

The Biosistemak team, responsible for the JANE sustainability work package, closed the meeting by highlighting the importance of the proposed initiatives, such as creating a knowledge platform where to share challenges, legislation, success stories and strategies, and the need to organize this kind of sessions, dialogues, between Member States to advance in the fight against cancer in Europe based on mutual learning.

For more information on the project, visit the official website: https://jane-project.eu/