Portugal welcomed eight countries to discuss the implementation of National Cancer Mission Hubs in ECHoS Knowledge Exchange Program meeting

Knowledge Exchange Program (KEP) grants partner organizations, and those responsible for the future National Cancer Mission Hubs (NCMH) structures, the opportunity to visit and learn on-site how the office of a counterpart NCMH works. This program promotes sharing good practices, and experience, while also serving to reduce barriers to the implementation of NCMHs and expanding their support network.

After three successful editions in Belgium, Sweden and Norway, the fourth ECHoS KEP took place in Portugal, between February 19^th and 20^th, at the Instituto Português de Oncologia do Porto FG, EPE (IPO-Porto). With this event, KEP reached a halfway milestone, with Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain countries in attendance.

The Portuguese Knowledge Exchange Program

Following an ambitious and thorough agenda, the meeting of the eight countries started with a tour de table on cancer research and cancer control. Each of the 9 represented institutions provided a status point and clarified the progress towards the establishment of each NCMH. After introduction, the institutions provided an overview (whenever applicable) of: their own cancer control landscape; the NCMH-like structure (mainly governance, stakeholders involved, objectives and activities); the communication and dissemination activities; the budget and funding of the Hub; the collaboration established with other initiatives; and the best practices and challenges. This exercise promoted a fruitful discussion and enabled a direct sharing of challenges between faced nationally by the different entities.

February 20^th, the second day of the Program, was marked by an individual deep dive, where each country had the opportunity to delve into their own Hub or Hub-like structure, and develop and present a SWOT analysis, providing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats they may bear along the implementation of their own NCMH. This exercise was promoted by Jinane Ghattas (Sciensano, Belgium) and all the information gathered will be disseminated at the end of the Program.

A session on “Policy Dialogues with ECHoS and National Cancer Mission Hubs”, provided by Florian Tille of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (OBS-WHO), a partnership of World Health Organisation, marked the end of this KEP. This session ensued an insightful dialogue over the inputs provided by the OBS-WHO to the ECHoS project so far, with a clear definition of what a cancer policy dialogue is and how is it supporting ECHoS project and, specifically, the NCMHs implementation.

The 2nd Meeting of the Portuguese ‘National Cancer Hub-PT’ (NCH-PT)

The 2nd Meeting of the National Cancer Hub-PT (NCH-PT), a joint initiative by the Agency for Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation (AICIB) and the Directorate-General of Health (DGS) through the National Programme for Oncological Diseases (PNDO/DGS), took place in the afternoon of the 19^th February 2025, as part of the program of the KEP in Portugal.

The event gathered more than 130 participants, consolidating the role of the NCH-PT as a platform for discussion and knowledge exchange on the activities and initiatives promoted by the Hub at both national and European levels over the past year. This meeting reinforced the importance of this Hub as an essential national structure for advancing Clinical Research & Biomedical Innovation in oncology in Portugal, fostering collaboration among all stakeholders in the ecosystem to drive the implementation of cancer control strategies to a whole new level.

See all photos here.

KEPs on the Horizon

The KEP program is not over yet! Due to the successful four editions, many more countries have expressed their interest in discussing their experiences, learning with each other and sharing best practices and challenges mitigation strategies.

The current run of the Program will take place in two more countries until reaching the end of the first phase of the project: June 16^th and 17^th, 2025, in the Netherlands, followed by a September edition in Luxembourg.

The success so far has demonstrated that knowledge sharing is an effective way to support Member States and Associated Countries in promoting the creation of NCMHs dedicated to establishing a network of support to advance Cancer Mission across Europe towards a “Cancer in all” approach.