Today, Minister Simon Harris, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science of Ireland opens the All-Island Cancer Research Institute (AICRI) Showcase – Vision and Progress event at the Herbert Park Hotel, Dublin. The event highlights the achievements of AICRI over the past year and will share its future plans, engaging with a range of stakeholders from academia, industry, the clinic and those with a lived experience of cancer. It brings together the cancer research community on the island of Ireland to explore future opportunities and discuss its strategy going forward and show how AICRI can align with cancer care and cancer research at a national level in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
AICRI is a rapidly emerging virtual institute which is creating an overarching framework for cancer research across the island. Since October 2020, it has brought together ten academic institutions and multiple other stakeholders from the healthcare sector, cancer patients, cancer charities, industry partners and government agencies. It has a broad research programme from cancer prevention to cancer diagnosis and treatment to survivorship and quality of life.
In March 2022, AICRI received its foundation stone funding when it was awarded €4 million from the Shared Island Fund as a Strand III (Partnerships of Scale) award under the first round of the HEA North-South Research Programme. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) administers the North-South Research Programme on behalf of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. AICRI and cancer research on the island of Ireland has benefited immensely from the North-South Research Programme, accounting for almost €13 million and one third of all funding under this groundbreaking scheme.
The €4 million award to AICRI allows for the creation of an All-Island Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Research Training Programme in Precision Cancer Medicine AICRIstart. The AICRIstart programme, led by Professor William Gallagher, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science and Prof. Mark Lawler, Queen’s University Belfast, trains ten doctoral students and ten post-doctoral fellows with significant expertise in precision cancer medicine. By bringing together ten academic institutions on the island of Ireland (UCD, TCD, RCSI, TU Dublin, DCU, QUB, UU, UoG, UL and UCC) in this foundational initiative, AICRIstart will catalyse a unique all-island network of excellence in cancer research.
Minister Harris said “I am delighted to provide an opening address today at this key event which is summarising the amazing progress that the All-Island Cancer Research Institute has made over the last couple of years. This cross-border research collaboration reinforces North-South links and helps to establish new relationships in the cancer research community across the island of Ireland."
"10 academic institutions and multiple stakeholders across the entire island of Ireland are working towards a common purpose, which is to better understand cancer and convert this information rapidly into effective diagnostics and therapeutics, as well as help those with a lived experience of cancer. Key funding from the HEA North-South Research Programme has provided the foundations of this inspiring collaboration, which is transforming how cancer research is performed on our island to improve the lives of our citizens.”.
Commenting on the AICRI Showcase Vision and Progress event, Professor William Gallagher, Professor of Cancer Biology at UCD and Co-Lead of AICRI said: “AICRI is building an overarching framework for cancer research both in Ireland and Northern Ireland. It is about creating a community, an attractive ecosystem to carry out world leading cancer research for the benefit of patients and wider public.”
Two other major cross-border cancer research awards (each €4 million) were funded under Strand II of the HEA North-South Research Programme, one relating to digital health (led by Professor Aedin Culhane at UL and Professor Mark Lawler at QUB) and the other relating to liquid biopsies (led by Professor Lorraine O’Driscoll at TCD and Professor Paul Mullen at QUB).
Professor Mark Lawler, Professor of Digital Health at QUB and co-lead of the Strand II eHealth Hub for Cancer project, will present findings today of a recent landmark study led by Queen’s University Belfast which has shown how precision medicine can be a cheaper and more efficient way to treat cancer.
Professor Lawler explains: “This landmark study highlights how precision medicine can deliver affordable care for cancer patients. Moving towards a precision oncology Companion Diagnostic (CDx)-guided approach can deliver health benefits at a potentially affordable cost, including in the development phase, lowering expensive clinical trial attrition rates and sparing patients from those treatments that are ineffective and may have significant side effects. If we don’t deploy a CDx-guided approach we are missing a huge opportunity to deliver the best, most affordable care to our patients.”
Several additional Strand I Awards (€200,000 each) covering different cancer research projects working at a North-South level were also supported under this initial round of funding of the HEA North-South Research Programme, and are collectively profiled today at the AICRI Showcase Vision and Progress event. The projects presented show what can be achieved through cross-border collaboration and help to further strengthens the island’s reputation for research excellence and innovation in the cancer space. They also highlight the importance of funding secured through the Shared Island Fund and how this funding can help researchers on our island to work collaboratively and contribute to addressing global challenges such as cancer.
The long-term aim of AICRI is to build towards a fully integrated, large-scale Co-Centre, which unites cancer research across the entire island, as well as connects East-West into mainland Britain, the EU and the US. Yesterday (26th September 2023), AICRI co-hosted with the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) a very successful EU Cancer Mission Day – Ireland in Dublin, where Ireland’s current and future participation in the EU Cancer Mission and EU Beating Cancer Plan was discussed. AICRI is currently collaborating with the NCCP in establishing a National Cancer Mission Hub in Ireland through the EU funded ECHoS project.