Building National Cancer Data Nodes: EU Project CANDLE Starts Work

Published 2 June 2025

The EU-funded project CANDLE – National CAncer data Node DeveLopErs – officially kicked off on 1 June 2025, launching its three-year mission to build a robust cancer research infrastructure across EU Member States.

Coordinated by Health-RI and with a consortium of 40 partners from 20 European countries, the project will support Member States in setting up National Cancer Data Nodes. These Nodes will manage and share cancer data nationally and across borders, connecting different national actors.

The National Cancer Data Nodes implemented in CANDLE will closely link to other European cancer data initiatives:

  1. the UNCAN.eu platform, a federated cancer data infrastructure being developed under the upcoming EU project UNCAN-CONNECT, and
  2. the European Cancer Patient Digital Centre (ECPDC). The figure below displays the project structure:

Driving Integration Across Europe

CANDLE will play a strategic role in supporting the European Health Data Space (EHDS) by establishing a federated network of national nodes in the cancer domain. These nodes can be seen as demonstrators for national disease-specific implementation of the EHDS, aligning EU-wide health data policies with regional and national requirements. Furthermore, CANDLE puts into practice the EU Mission on Cancer and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan by supporting their implementation on national level and fostering dialogue with other major initiatives.

The CANDLE Consortium includes partners from Member State governance bodies, cancer care, patients and public health, as well as six major European Research Infrastructures. Thus, the consortium is well-suited to ensure the adoption of best practices in data sharing, enhance maturity in data access, and foster cross-domain collaboration.

  • LinkedIn: CANDLE Project
  • Mastodon: https://eupolicy.social/@CANDLEproject
  • Contact for enquiries: candle[at]empirica.com

Basic information

  • Name: National CAncer data Node DeveLopErs
  • Type of Action: HORIZON Coordination and Support Action
  • Project Number: 101214368
  • Budget: €2,999,547.50
  • Time frame: 3 years (2025-2028)
  • Granting Authority: European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA)
  • Topic: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-02

Consortium

Coordinator

  1. Health-RI (Netherlands)

Beneficiaries

  1. Lygature (Netherlands)

  2. European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Germany)

  3. Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (Spain)

  4. Steinbeis Innovation gGmbH (Germany)

  5. Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany)

  6. Empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH (Germany)

  7. Finnish Cancer Center HUS-yhtymä (Finland)

  8. Biobanks and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure Consortium (Austria)

  9. EATRIS ERIC (Netherlands)

  10. European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (France)

  11. Euro-BioImaging (Finland)

  12. Utrecht University (Netherlands)

  13. Stichting Integraal Kankercentrum Nederland (Netherlands)

  14. European Cancer Organisation (Belgium)

  15. Fundació Centre de Regulació Genòmica (Spain)

  16. Cancer Research and Innovation Hub Malta (Malta)

  17. Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud (Spain)

  18. Kauno Technologijos Universitetas (Lithuania)

  19. Luxembourg Institute of Health (Luxembourg)

  20. Sciensano (Belgium)

  21. Ethniko Kentro Erevnas kai Technologikis Anaptyxis (Greece)

  22. Ethniko Kentro Tekmiriosis kai Ilektronikou Periechomenou (Greece)

  23. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France)

  24. Oslo Universitetssykehus HF (Norway)

  25. University of Limerick (Ireland)

  26. Fundación para la Investigación del Hospital Universitario La Fe de la Comunidad Valenciana (Spain)

  27. Associação ISCTE Conhecimento e Inovação – Centro de Valorização e Transferência de Tecnologias (Portugal)

Associated Partners

  1. Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (Switzerland)

  2. Socialstyrelsen – National Board of Health and Welfare (Sweden)

  3. Kypriako Idryma Ereynon Gia Ti Myiki Dystrofia (Cyprus)

  4. Karaiskakeio Idryma (Cyprus)

  5. Uppsala Universitet (Sweden)

  6. Instytut Chemii Bioorganicznej Polskiej Akademii Nauk (Poland)

  7. Univerza v Ljubljani (Slovenia)

  8. Medizinische Universität Wien (Austria)

  9. Region Nordjylland (North Denmark Region) (Denmark)

Affiliated Entities

  1. Masarykův onkologický ústav (Czech Republic)

  2. Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci (Czech Republic)

  3. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy)