World Cancer Day 2014

Marked annually on 4 February, this year’s World Cancer Day marked an opportunity for the European Commission to highlight its commitment to stakeholders in the field of cancer and health, especially its role in providing financial support to collective projects in line with European priorities regarding health.

Stakeholder that want to devote themselves to collaborative projects regarding health and especially the fight against cancer may be eligible to a wide range of EU grants. The start of the new programming period (2014-2020) will nothing but deepen this trend, with a greater emphasis being laid on health and cancer due to ageing population.

Overall, EU commitment in providing financial support to stakeholder in the field of health and cancer relate to two main fields of action: heath security and health knowledge dissemination on the one hand, innovation and research on the other hand.

The field of health security and health knowledge dissemination is covered by the Second Programme of Community Action in the Field of Health 2008 – 2013, (also called “Together for health”) in force until spring 2014. This programme allows the European Commission to co-finance European-wide projects supported by NGOs, public administrations, universities, research centers or private companies.

With the start of the new programming period, a new version of the Programme of Community Action in the Field of Health will come into force by spring 2014 under the name “Health programme 2014-2020”. A greater emphasis shall be laid on the fight against cancer and other chronic diseases, especially through disease prevention and promotion of non-carcinogenic environments.

Support to research and innovation is the second main vehicle used by the EU to spearhead stakeholders likely to commit themselves to improving health in Europe and tackling cancer. Through the “Horizon 2020” programme that came into force on 1 January, the EU is co-financing European-wide collaborative projects in line with research and innovation in the field of health.

On that matter, the fight against cancer has become a leading field of action for the European Union. It is worth underlying the contribution that has been provided by EU grants given out under the strand Innovative Medicines Initiative II (IMI II) of the Horizon 2020 programme. This programme (formerly IMI I) aims at gathering SMEs, research centers and stakeholder in the pharmaceutical industry and getting them to work on collaborative projects that shall provide cancer patients with treatments and medicines.