Oncode Collaboration 101: By fostering a culture of openness and sharing, Oncode enables its researchers to engage in cross-disciplinary collaborations, with different research groups, clinicians, institutes, public and private organizations, and patients. Oncode aims to encourage its researchers to establish new collaborations with partners beyond their own established networks – within Oncode and beyond, nationally and internationally – to drive true innovation.

Oncode recognizes that a strong community is essential for productive collaboration. It forms the foundation to drive the sharing of knowledge and expertise towards the creation of new ideas; and then take these forward into practice. Collaboration enables constructive discussion and the exchange of new ideas and opinions, helping forge new relationships and strengthening existing ones. In 2022, in collaboration with the Technical University Eindhoven (TU/e) a new concept was introduced to organize a series of more widely accessible meetings, where mid-career level scientists from Oncode and TU/e provide insights into selected areas and/or technologies by presenting their work. The concept has been well received, and Oncode is exploring opportunities for further roll-out with other organizations.

To drive constructive discussion, the exchange of new ideas and opinions, and the forging of new relations and the strengthening of existing relations, Oncode organized 9 meetings and events in 2022, involving a total of 1132 participants. During Phase 1, Oncode managed to establish an engaged and vibrant research community. Researchers at all career stages participated, discussed their hypotheses, shared results, and actively engaged, resulting in new interactions between researchers, clinicians, (ex-)patients, and industry representatives. Oncode meetings attracted a total of 5714 participants, spread across 47 Oncode events including 8 annual (scientific) conferences, 19 technical or scientific sessions, four clinical workshops, eight OI meetings and a two-day post-doc retreat, to discuss great ideas for even greater science.

To further stimulate innovations and identify medical needs that require novel approaches, Oncode aims to further push its collaborative efforts beyond both the Oncode community and national borders. By pro-actively engaging in large-scale strategic initiatives more new connections and meaningful synergies are created, forging stronger partnerships to combat cancer together.

This strategy is exemplified by the Oncode-coordinated IMI project PERSIST-Seq which was launched in 2021. Several additional strategic initiatives were successful in 2022. Oncode now participates in the European Commission-funded coordination and support action “European Initiative to UNderstand CANcer (4.UNCAN.eu), an initiative of the EU’s Mission on Cancer program. The 4.UNCAN.eu initiative unites 29 core and advisory partners from 20 different EU member states, to deliver the blueprint for a strategic agenda and a European data hub. Furthermore, Oncode participates in the NWO Perspectief project UNRANU, which was granted in 2022 and will commence activities in 2023. UNRANU aims to increase our understanding of the radiobiology of therapeutic medical radionuclides, and within the project Oncode will focus its efforts on patient engagement and dissemination activities.

Going forward, in Phase 2 Oncode will increase its efforts to initiate and participate in large-scale strategic initiatives. It will continue to seek strategic collaborations with foreign institutes and networks and use its Strategic Funding Support program to identify and act on collaborative funding opportunities, and use its Industry Engagement program to deploy Oncode’s international industry network.

In 2020, Oncode launched a new initiative called Oncode Accelerator Projects (OAPs), to unite OIs, researchers throughout the scientific community, clinicians and industry partners and encourage the resulting multi-disciplinary teams to design ambitious high-risk/high-gain approaches to address oncology challenges that are yet to be resolved. Following interactive brainstorm sessions involving all OIs, the OAP call was launched in 2020, resulting in 23 project ideas that were pitched and discussed in further interactive sessions with all OIs. Five teams were invited to submit a full proposal for review by Oncode’s International Advisory Board, resulting in three proposals being earmarked for funding in 2021.

Funding was secured for two of the selected proposals, both of which were actively running in 2022:

• ‘Finding regulatory mutations in the non-coding cancer genome’. A team of eight research groups from five partner institutes and an industry partner coordinated by OI Bas van Steensel (NKI). Currently active and enabled by €4.4M of attracted private funding.
• ’Curing tumors difficult to treat with immunotherapy by mobilizing innate leukocytes’. Participating research groups will collectively add to the KWF contribution. A team of 11 research groups from six partner institutes coordinated by OI Sjoerd van der Burg (LUMC). Launched in 2022, enabled by €3.4M from KWF plus €1.6M in-kind contribution of Oncode base funding through the participating OIs. Also see the included interview with Sjoerd van der Burg published in the report.

The OAP initiative has been very well received both within and outside the Oncode community, and forms a central element of Oncode’s Phase 2 strategy.

Patient Engagement 101: Cancer patients and oncology researchers are inherently linked, but rarely meet. In different ways, both patients and researchers have their lives deeply affected by cancer. Bringing researchers and patients together provides opportunities for researchers to access first-hand knowledge and improve their research through novel ideas, perspectives, and discussions; while patients gain insight into the science underlying their disease, can have their questions answered, and provide valuable input to advance oncology research.

Oncode ensures that the patient perspective is well represented within the institute’s actions, ranging from patient representation in its governance structure and inclusion of the patient perspective in its communications, to its dedicated Patient Engagement (PE) Program with well-defined support structures that enable researchers and (ex-)patients to connect and interact. 

The PE program has expanded it’s activities and horizon, by connecting with national and international organizations and institutes and participating in strategic (EU-wide) consortia to further stimulate effective collaboration between researchers and patients and raise awareness on patient engagement. As part of these efforts, Oncode is a partner in the 4.UNCAN.eu project (see also section 3.2.1), where among other things it contributes to patient engagement-related activities. In 2022, the PE team organized two interactive seminars, contributed to four lectures, organized a theme meeting and the first general meeting for all participants in the Patient Perspective Program. Furthermore, the Patient Perspective Program featured in two videos created for Worlds Cancer Day 2022 and the Oncode-KWF Major Donor Event, and a Dutch landing page was launched for patients, their relatives and other interested parties. 

In 2019, Oncode initiated the Patient Perspective Program, to connect (ex-)cancer patients and researchers and provide a platform to regularly meet and discuss experiences and perspectives. During Phase 1, the program evolved into a solid foundation of meaningful patient participation. Currently the program includes active participation of eight Oncode research groups and 15 (ex-)patients (or parents), of which 12 are directly partnered with an OI. Under the program, recurring monthly ‘walk-in’ meetings are held, where program participants meet for informal discussion.

Public Private Partnerships 101: Public-Private partnerships are critical to addressing science’s most complex challenges and advancing the uptake of scientific findings for further development toward clinical application. To drive efficient translation of Oncode research findings, Oncode promotes interdisciplinary collaboration with industrial partners and continuously invests in building long-lasting relationships and identifying new opportunities for collaboration. Through the activities of Oncode’s Valorization Team and its proactive Industry Engagement program, Oncode has built an extensive (inter)national network of industry players to facilitate such public-private collaborations. 

A major achievement in 2022 was the successful outcome of the National Growth fund application ‘Oncode-PACT’, a large public-private engine initiated by Oncode, to accelerate the pre-clinical development of cancer treatments, as is discussed in more detail below. Over the course of Phase 1, the Valorization Team attended more than 43 global industry life science events and held over 500 partnering meetings. In collaboration with HollandBio -the Dutch biotech cluster-, three joint meetings were organized, connecting scientists and industry professionals in the Dutch life sciences landscape. This pro-active approach resulted in 507 new agreements with industry parties. These include 81 new public-private collaborative research projects, with a total contract value of €54,3M. 

The Industry Engagement (IE) program aims to map the global life sciences industry landscape, foster existing and establish new long-lasting partnerships, and identify new opportunities for collaboration and exchange with industry. To this end, the program is committed to a pro-active approach in which the Valorization Team’s Business Developers (BDs) actively engage with players in the Dutch and global life sciences industry to establish strong bonds. In 2019, Oncode became a member of HollandBio, and has set up interactions with ~95% of the oncology-related SMEs in the Netherlands. Efforts are further aimed at strengthening and expanding partnerships internationally throughout the global oncology industry sector.

In 2022, 11 new public-private collaborative projects were launched, representing a total contract value of €5,0M, considerably less than in previous years. However, with a full pipeline it is expected that the figure will recover to anticipated levels in 2023. In September 2022, Oncode and Pivot Park Oss jointly organized a full day event on Cancer Drug Discovery, open to Dutch academic and industry experts. A milestone achievement in 2022 was the strategic alliance with Cancer Research Horizons – an innovation engine initiative established by Cancer Research UK – as part of a joint effort to boost understanding of cancer and translate research findings into patient benefits. This five-year partnership is aimed at developing joint training programs, facilitating translation of novel discoveries through industry partnerships or venture creation, co-funding research projects and sharing of drug discovery capabilities.

In 2021, Oncode joined forces in a large public-private consortium that includes 50 key academic and industry players in the (Dutch) oncology space, to spearhead an application to the National Growth Fund (NGF). The project aims to establish a large-scale product development platform called the Oncode Preclinical Accelerator for Cancer Treatment (Oncode-PACT), with the ambition to develop new effective cancer drugs faster and more cost-effectively. 

The average development time for a medicine, from the first scientific insights obtained in the laboratory, to the moment that patients have access to it, is 10 to 15 years. Moreover, it is a common occurrence that a scientific innovation, and the resulting new drug candidate, never reaches the stage of clinical implementation. In a fragmented landscape, the long and challenging preclinical development process is a major bottleneck in drug development. Low success rates due to late failures in drug development come at the price of high investments that ultimately do not lead to new drugs reaching patients. The current development process for anti-cancer drugs is therefore expensive, takes too long, and usually works only for a subset of the targeted patient population. Oncode-PACT aims to provide solutions to these problems, by building a preclinical development infrastructure to de-risk and accelerate the drug development process. 

In April 2022, the NGF committee and the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (EZK) Micky Adriaansens announced the decision to grant a total of €325M NGF subsidy to the Oncode-PACT proposal. The NGF subsidy is granted for a project period of eight years, with €161M awarded directly and €164M conditionally granted. Oncode-PACT is a collaborative initiative of 20 public and 30 industry partners together committing another €337M, involving a total project budget of €662M. In 2022, Oncode Institute and the five coordinating partners in Oncode-PACT, commenced the operational implementation of the initiative. In July 2022, the Oncode-PACT foundation was incorporated, and received the first tranche of funding in December 2022.