|
The "Groupement Européen d'Intérêt Economique - Liaison Network for Cancer" (GEIE-LINC)
arose from an initiative of the Organisation of the European Cancer Institutes (OECI)
aiming at strengthening European competitiveness in cancer research and contributing
to creating a critical mass of research and technological resources in favour of
the fight against cancer. In 2000, OECI established LINC in Brussels, a tangible
as outcome of a strategic meeting that examined moves "Toward a European Space for
Oncology".
LINC acts as the executive arm of OECI. Its mission, which has been so far to collect
and diffuse information and to facilitate interactions between its members in cancer
training, research, treatment and care, and rehabilitation and related medical disciplines,
will be extended to provide management, logistics and support services to its members
in the general context of joint research and integration programmes. Key issues
of cancer research are taken up by LINC and assessed for further collaboration between
its members and for funding opportunities with the appropriate sources. LINC intends
to provide its members with an operational instrument for dealing with European
initiatives such as the ERA and the 6th Framework Programmes.
LINC bridges the gap between the EU Institutions and the European Comprehensive
Cancer Centres community through actions such as:
Establishing and monitoring interfaces between the national research programmes
and funding sources, with a view of focusing financial and scientific resources
towards key objectives;Initiating and preparing proposals and requests for funding, entering agreements
on behalf of its members and taking up the role of project coordinator where appropriate;Representing as required its member's interests in European and international Institutions,
virtually acting as a "European Comprehensive Cancer Centre";Collecting, analysing and diffusing information, scientists and scientific and economic
experiences.
|