The Second Annual Meeting of the Prevention and Early Detection (P&ED) Cluster – Implementation Research recently took place in Barcelona, hosted by the Public Health Agency of Catalonia and organized by the PIECES team.
The event brought together representatives from all six Cluster projects — PIECES, ONCODIR, CPW (Cancer Prevention at Work), PREVENT, CO-CAPTAIN, and 4P-CAN — for a collaborative exchange of insights, progress, and future directions. Over the course of the meeting, participants reflected on achievements from the past year and explored opportunities to align efforts and strengthen collaboration across working groups.
The Cluster is a collaborative approach that aims to coordinate and integrate the efforts of six different cancer prevention projects. Together, they are working to increase societal and policy impact on cancer prevention and early detection.
The First P&ED Cluster Round Table
A major highlight of the event was the inaugural P&ED Cluster Round Table, titled: “From Research to Practice: Implementing Effective Cancer Prevention Strategies Across Europe”
This engaging session fostered dynamic discussions between speakers and attendees, underscoring the urgent need to translate scientific research into real-world strategies that can make a tangible impact on cancer prevention across Europe.
The round table was moderated by Dr. Wolfgang Fecke, Executive Director of the Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL), and featured expert panelists from across the Cluster:
- Anna Schneider-Kamp
Cancer Prevention at Work (CPW)
PhD, Associate Professor, University of Southern Denmark - Thanassis Mavropoulos
ONCODIR Project
Project Coordinator, Postdoctoral Researcher, Information Technologies Institute (ITI), Centre for Research and Technology Hellas - Bethany Hipple Walters
PIECES Project
PhD, Senior Researcher, Trimbos Institute for Mental Health - Joy Ngo
PREVENT EU Project
Researcher, IDIAPJGol (Institut d’Investigació en Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol) - Marius Geantă, MD
4P-CAN Project
Project Coordinator, President & Co-Founder, Centre for Innovation in Medicine - Choni Doñate Martínez
CO-CAPTAIN_EU
PhD, Senior Researcher, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Biomedical Data Science Lab
The round table highlighted the shared mission of these projects: to drive evidence-based, effective, and scalable solutions for cancer prevention and early detection, and to support their implementation across diverse health systems in Europe.
As the P&ED Cluster continues its work, this meeting marked another important step in building a collaborative foundation to help reduce the burden of cancer through innovation, partnership, and impact-driven research.