On 7 June, the European Commission (EC) opened a call for proposals for the 2021 Thematic Networks under the EU Health Policy Platform. The EC’s Health Policy Platform hosts a range of Thematic Networks, whose aim is to work with their communities and create Joint Statements that support the various policy initiatives being developed at EU level. Thematic Networks are designed to discuss health issues, share ideas, and gather information on policy areas related to health.
This year, Rare Cancers Europe responded to the call for proposals for the creation of a new Thematic Network dedicated to rare cancers. Despite the increased focus on oncology at European level, rare cancers are still a neglected area deserving attention across all policies as well as on-going and planned initiatives.
The European Commission selected the RCE proposal “Rare Cancers in All Policies” as one of the 5 semi-finalists and it then opened a “competition” between the 5 shortlisted proposals through a polling exercise with the aim to select the top 3 proposals.
The polling exercise closed on the 26 of July at 23:59 and the RCE proposal received the second highest number of votes putting it in second place. If you are a registered member of the Health Platform, you can have access to the result of the votes here.
The European Commission will now deliberate and choose the winners in three different policy areas based on the highest number of votes.
For more information regarding RCE’s proposal please click here.