On Your Marks...The Grand Challenge Is On…..
by Pharmacy Life - Published on 12 October 2015
Cancer Research UK has launched a new initiative to unite teams of the best scientists around the world to come up with answers about how to save more lives from cancer.
Grand Challenges is a £100 million investment by the charity to set seven challenges which cover some of the most important unanswered questions in cancer research. Cancer Research UK brought together a panel of influential scientists, cancer researchers and patients worldwide to come up with the challenges and will now invite international scientists across all disciplines from academia, technology and business to come up with innovative, ambitious approaches to tackle these problems.
The first winning proposal will be announced in the autumn of 2016, with the successful team awarded up to £20 million to fund five or more years of research. Over the next five years, Cancer Research UK plans to make at least five Grand Challenge awards to stimulate fresh thinking and investment in multiple areas of cancer research.
‘Seeing the scientific community come together to find new ways to tackle cancer has been truly inspiring,’ said Dr Rick Klausner, chair of the Grand Challenge board and former director of the US National Cancer Institute. ‘Cancer Research UK is challenging the very way we think about cancer by bringing together scientists and patients with fresh, new ideas, unconstrained by discipline or location. This is research on a scale never before attempted in cancer – it’s big, it’s bold and I’m very excited to be part of this journey.’
‘Thanks to the amazing advances in our understanding of cancer, and the availability of powerful new technologies, we’re at a pivotal time in cancer research,’ added Professor Nic Jones, Cancer Research UK’s chief scientist. ‘The prospect of major advances in tackling cancer have never been greater, but to realise these opportunities, we need to galvanise the global scientific community to unite and work together to solve some of the biggest challenges we face. By doing this, we can transform the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
‘Cancer is a global problem and it demands a global response – we know that scientists around the world, and from varied disciplines, will have brilliant and innovative ideas to address these challenges and we can’t wait to see them.’