How the EU Cancer Mission can support regions

The purpose of the workshop was to highlight how regions can benefit from the Cancer Mission, as it integrates its actions at national, regional, and local level through the establishment of National Cancer Mission Hubs. It also explored how regions can contribute to the creation of National Cancer Mission Hubs and how they can benefit from their future work.

National Cancer Mission Hubs will support the integration of research and health policies at national/regional level, supporting cross-policy dialogues engaging with a broad range of stakeholders from both public and private sectors on cancer control and promoting citizen engagement.

Key messages
Missions provide solutions to challenges, that citizens face in their daily lives, and bringing stakeholders together is crucial to ascertain the needs of citizens.
The Mission Hubs will create permanent structures dedicated to the integration of the Cancer Mission, providing guidelines and best practices for efficient stakeholder mobilisation and participation taking into consideration the differences in national health and research systems. The future network of mission hubs will serve as a platform for national and regional actors across the EU, for best practices exchanges and joint activities.
Regions see getting involved with the National Cancer Mission Hubs as a real opportunity as they have a link with their own communities and have expertise in reaching out to citizens and they want a role.
Regions were urged to be involved in implementing EU actions according to the needs of their regions and to help identify who the relevant actors and stakeholders are on the ground.
The challenge is for all cancer stakeholders in regions to work together to keep cancer on the agenda and use it to be effective at addressing the real needs of region.