CANDLE

About CANDLE 

Data is an essential resource to improve our understanding of cancer, advance prevention and early detection strategies, facilitate the delivery of personalised care, and better address the quality of life of cancer patients and survivors. 

CANDLE (national CAncer data Node DeveLopErs) aims to improve the (re)use of cancer data by supporting the establishment of National Cancer Data Nodes (NCDNs) in European Member States and associated countries (e.g. Norway and Switzerland). A staged approach will be taken by first conceptualizing the NCDNs based on the user needs. As NCDNs should build on existing national structures, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, so CANDLE will develop a maturation model for countries to assess their current status. Based on this status, an implementation roadmap can be provided including alignment with relevant cancer domain efforts and the European Health Data Space (EHDS). All tools to support the establishment of an NCDN will be collected in the CANDLE resource kit. 

Together, these NCDNs will form the UNCAN.eu network that will support the European Initiative to Understand Cancer (UNCAN.eu, a federated European cancer research data infrastructure) and the European Cancer Patient Digital Centre (ECPDC, a European network of national digital infrastructures for cancer patients). 

CANDLE is a European consortium funded by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) including representation from 20 different countries and European research infrastructures. 

Learn more about the project.

Lygature in CANDLE 

Lygature supports CANDLE with over-all partnership management, including coordination of  engagement between the consortium and national representatives. In this role, Lygature can benefit from extensive experience in previous multi-stakeholder collaborations on the European (e.g. Bigpicture) and national level (e.g. Health-RI). 

Next to partnership management, Lygature will contribute specific data infrastructure expertise relevant to creating a European network of National Cancer Data Nodes that act in a complementary way to existing European research infrastructures, regulations (e.g. European Health Data Space) and cancer domain initiatives (e.g. EUCAIM).