The NCRI is a partnership of UK cancer research funders; together our partners spend collectively more than £500 million a year on cancer research in the UK. By working together to collaborate and co-ordinate we can ensure that that investment is used to best effect.
What initiatives are you currently working on?
Working in partnership with our partners and other key stakeholders we take on initiatives that are either too broad or too complex, too challenging for any one individual to take on on their own. So at the moment some of our initiatives are in boosting research into radiotherapy; bringing together the biobanking community to address standards, harmonising standards and practices; we’re beginning some work with the surgery community as well to run a series of workshops to advance surgical research and also looking at the needs in academic pathology.
Why is collaboration so important in cancer research?
Cancer is a very complex disease involving a huge amount of different specialities, different stakeholders and only by working together can we really address cancer by bringing together those different stakeholders with their different perspectives, their expertise, their resources. By working in partnership we can advance progress against cancer faster.
Why is sustained commitment to cancer research so vital?
The research process is a very long process. Cancer has really benefitted from partnership working; it has been ahead of the field in terms of partnership working. There might be a tendency to say that cancer is now done and we can move on to other areas but if we were to do that we would lose all the benefit of the partnership working, the momentum, the research that has been built to date. So we really need to maintain that momentum.
What are your plans for NCRI?
The NCRI partners span the whole range of cancer research across the whole patient path. I’m really keen for us to look at how we work with our partners, how we engage more with them as we set our strategy and decide the priorities. I’m also keen for us to look at how we interact with some of the key stakeholders, for example industry, and also with our consumers. We already have a strong track record of working with consumers, so patients and carers, but also engaging more with them as we identify priorities for our future activities.
Why is the conference important and what have you found interesting this year?
The conference is the UK’s leading cancer research conference and it really epitomises what we do at NCRI by bringing people together to progress cancer research. This year has been particularly special because it has been the tenth anniversary of the conference so it’s a real milestone for us at NCRI and the people who work with us. The bits that have been special for me have been really where we’ve looked back in key areas of cancer research at what has been progressed and then looking at the opportunities for the future in these areas.
