Scientific team 101: Within a single institute, Oncode connects many different world leaders in basic cancer research, covering a broad range of topics across all aspects of cancer research to stimulate outside-the-box thinking and multi-disciplinary interaction. Oncode was established in 2017 with an initial group of 43 founding scientists at eight Dutch research institutes. In 2019, the group was expanded with 19 new investigators through two rounds of open recruitment. These recruitment rounds were focused on further balancing the OI team with respect to gender, career stage, and expertise. This completed the Phase 1 research team, consisting of 62 OIs (18:44 junior/senior; 17:45 female/male), based at 12 Dutch research institutions, covering topics ranging from technology development in the basic sciences to translational research based on the discovery of new therapeutic opportunities. Due to the retirement of one OI, in 2022 the team consisted of 61 OI groups and more than 800 researchers.

Oncode has set itself the ambitious aim of achieving scientific breakthroughs and translating these into tangible benefits for patients and society. For this, it is essential that its scientific team comprises the most excellent and talented investigators in the Dutch oncology community, each actively contributing to Oncode’s objectives. In 2022, in preparation for Oncode’s Phase 2, an evaluation of the majority of 61 OIs was conducted to assess each individual OI and their group’s scientific excellence and contribution to Oncode’s goals (valorization, collaboration and community activities). All senior OIs, and the Junior OIs that joined Oncode at its launch in 2017, were evaluated by a panel of independent external experts (see Appendix IV for the OI assessment and selection procedure). Positively evaluated junior (Jr) OIs will transition to senior (Sr) OI status. The 12 Jr OIs who started in 2019, entered Phase 2 as Jr until end of 2023 with an evaluation scheduled in 2023, to determine which ones will be invited to continue in Phase 2, and thereby transition to Sr OI status from 2024 onwards. Following review by the independent experts, based on the recommendations of Oncode’s International Review Committee and International Advisory Board, 52 OIs (40 Sr OIs and 12 Jr OIs) were invited to continue in Oncode Phase 2. Funds are reserved for a new recruitment round in 2023, to expand the scientific team of OIs with new talent and experts from January 2024 onwards.

Base funding 101: Oncode promotes the innovation potential of its research community by providing its investigators with base funds for fundamental oncology research. Oncode base funds are near-unrestricted and are designed to promote innovative basic and pre-clinical research lines of high quality (high-risk/high-gain) research, or for OIs to apply their expertise in new research lines. Typically, these research lines are difficult to finance in the standard funding landscape due to a lack of preliminary data or an adequate track record and limited funding availability. Of equal importance, Oncode’s base funds provide OIs with the financial capability and flexibility to accelerate research lines, change the scope of research programs, or quickly terminate non-successful projects. Importantly, Oncode supports widespread access to generated results and knowledge, to enable others across the globe to use and build on these findings. Oncode is committed to Open Science and FAIR Data, through the FAIR data principles and as formalized in its Open Access Publishing policy. As such, all OI and their research groups are committed to open access publishing of all Oncode research. The impact of Oncode’s base funds can be seen on multiple levels, including publications, new funding opportunities, and the ability to venture into new research and collaborations, as highlighted below.

In 2022, OIs collectively published 404 unique peer-reviewed publications. Of these, 125 were primary publications with an Oncode Investigator listed as last and/or corresponding author. Reflecting the success of the first 5-year phase of Oncode, the Oncode community collectively contributed to a total of 1670 unique publications, of which 623 primary publications had an OI as last and/or corresponding author. Oncode’s base funding is vital for much of the research being conducted and the results established. 

Notable examples of key publications in 2022 include:

• Klaasen et al, Nature 607 (2022). Study by Geert Kops, including Susanne Lens and Jop Kind, demonstrating a direct link between nuclear chromosome positions and segregation error frequencies. 
• van Toorn et al, Molecular Cell 82 (2022). Study by Jurgen Marteijn and Wim Vermeulen, demonstrating that active DNA damage eviction by HLTF stimulates nucleotide excision repair.
• Lenos et al, Nature Communications 13 (2002). Study by Louis Vermeulen, including J.P. Medema and Geert Kops, on comprehensive molecular characterization of colorectal cancer-related peritoneal metastasis.
• Dekkers et al, Nature Biotechnology 41 (2022). Study by Anne Rios, including Hans Clevers, employing advanced 3D imaging and organoid technology to uncover the mode of action of engineered T cells for cellular immunotherapies. 
• Linder et al, Cancer Discovery 12 (2022). Study by Wilbert Zwart, including Lodewyk Wessels and Rene Medema, on drug-induced epigenomic plasticity affecting circadian rhythm regulation to drive prostate cancer towards androgen independence. 
• Zingg et al, Nature 608 (2022). Study by Jos Jonkers, including Lodewyk Wessels and Edwin Cuppen, identifying truncated FGFR2 as a clinically actionable oncogene in several cancers.

Oncode’s base funds enable OIs to initiate new research lines and gather preliminary data on promising new findings. Since the establishment of Oncode in 2017, it has become increasingly evident that research lines that are enabled through Oncode’s base funds can truly drive successful national and international grant applications. In 2022, OIs and their teams were granted a total of €66,7M subsidy in grants and awards for their research.

Several notable successful grant application outcomes in 2022, where Oncode base funds provided an essential contribution, include:

• NWO Vidi Grant - Miao-Ping Chien (Erasmus MC), Rebekka Schneider (Erasmus MC), Jarno Drost (Princess Máxima Center) and Monique Mulder (Ovaa lab; LUMC)
• ERC Consolidator Grant - Louis Vermeulen (AUMC-AMC) and Marvin Tanenbaum (Hubrecht)
• ERC Advanced Grant - Daniel Peeper (NKI) and Alexander van Oudenaarden (Hubrecht)
• NWO Vici Grant - Jacco van Rheenen (NKI) and Louis Vermeulen (AUMC-AMC)

In addition to high-quality publications and successful grant applications, OIs have received (inter)national recognition through awards and invitations for membership of select scientific communities. These awards and memberships reflect the quality and relevance of the recipient scientist’s research achievements.

Also in 2022 several OIs received (inter)national recognition, including the following highlights:

• New York Stem Cell Foundation Award - Ruben van Boxtel (Princess Máxima Center)
• Josefien Nefkens Award - Roland Kanaar (Erasmus MC)
• Ammodo Science Award - Ruben van Boxtel (Princess Máxima Center) and Hans Clevers (Hubrecht)
• EMBO Young Investigator Program - Tineke Lenstra (NKI)
• EMBO membership - Marvin Tanenbaum (Hubrecht) and Michiel Vermeulen (Radboud Uni)

Strategic Funding Support 101: Oncode’s Strategic Funding Support (SFS) program aims to help OIs and Oncode researchers navigate the funding landscape and improve their grant writing skills, thereby boosting grant application success and thus also increasing Oncode research funding. Support is provided through proposal reviews, and Oncode can also provide support in identifying suitable (industry) partners or coordinating a grant application. In addition, the program has provided tailored funding strategies for OIs and Oncode spin-off companies and offers grant writing training and ‘tips & tricks’.

In previous years, Oncode Business Developers (BD) of the Valorization Team proactively engaged with OIs to provide funding support, a strategy that was revised in 2021 towards more balanced utilization of resources. By increasing focus on grant reviews and limited advertisement of SFS program offerings, the need for grant writing support to the community could be addressed, while optimizing use of capacity and maintaining high quality. In Phase 2, Oncode will continue its efforts to provide the Oncode community with strategic funding support, with increasing focus on participation in and coordination of strategic consortium initiatives for large-value international funding opportunities.

In 2022, the program achieved a success rate of 72%, and helped secure total funding of €16.7M, of which €4.8M was allocated to OI labs, Oncode Institute and Oncode spin-offs. Reflecting on Phase 1, the SFS program supported 95 grant applications, with an average success rate of 48% (7 evaluation results pending). A total of €46M was secured, of which €22.1M was allocated to Oncode Investigator labs, Oncode Institute and Oncode spin-offs. Of these projects, 32% were public-private partnerships.

Notable successful grant applications supported through the SFS program that were granted in 2022 include:

• NWO Vidi (€800k) - Miao-Ping Chien (Erasmus MC)
• NWO-XL (€2M) - Jop Kind (Hubrecht), Michiel Vermeulen (Radboud Uni) and collaborators
• KWF (€474k ) - Anne Rios (Prinses Máxima Center and collaborators)
• KWF (€573k); Linde Meyaard (UMC Utrecht)
• EIC Pathfinder (€3.6M) - Linde Meyaard and collaborators