Building Bridges, Beating Cancer, An #EUnite Event

Join us as we build bridges to beat cancer!

Cancer is not one disease, but a constellation of diseases of immense complexity which manifests in many different forms and cannot be solved through a one-size-fits-all approach.

Quickly becoming the number one killer in Europe, cancer is a policy priority for the EU and is a societal issue with a profound human effect on patients, care givers, family, and friends. Impacting people in the prime of their lives, it has serious social and economic implications as patients might be the sole earners supporting their families, raising children, or building towards their dreams and aspirations in life.

In 2020 alone, 2.7 million people in the EU were diagnosed with cancer and 1.3 million people lost their lives to it. If nothing changes in how we prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer, the number of cases is set to increase by 24% within 15 years, making it the leading cause of death in the EU.

As cancer cases rise, inequalities in care and treatment will grow as well. The probability of receiving a timely diagnosis and surviving the disease already differs greatly across Europe due to major inequities in access to cancer knowledge, prevention, diagnostics, treatments, and care. If these inequalities are not reduced, more Europeans than ever before will be left at risk.

As a result of the pandemic, we have witnessed the power collaboration and inclusion hold to overcome significant health challenges by approaching them as a social responsibility. Cancer is a health crisis demanding our attention. Tackling the cancer crisis in Europe will require the same mindset shift towards trust and cooperation across all stakeholders, including institutions, industry, academia, and patient groups.

Building Bridges, Beating Cancer

To identify and support the best practices to challenge the cancer crisis in Europe, ScanBalt and Novartis are co-organizing an event which will focus on innovative solutions to bridge the differences and inequalities in access to treatment in the Europe¹.
 

Building Bridges, Beating Cancer (#B3C) is a conversation open to everyone and will begin on November 22 with an opening session featuring the announcement of the winning Top Projects. With special events throughout the week, #B3C will culminate with the announcement of winning Hackathon projects on November 26.

Format

The event will be fully virtual, targeting European based participants and center on three pillars: Inspirational Talks, Top Projects, and the Hackathon.

Inspirational talks

Through a series of presentations delivered by experts from a diverse range of backgrounds, including clinicians and patients, #B3C’s Inspirational Talks will look at the role of innovation and collaboration in overcoming barriers and improving access to treatment.

A line-up of dynamic speakers will come together to share experiences and learnings, highlighting how they have seen value impact delivered to people and society, including solutions addressing social, economic, and psychological challenges.

Through their insight, we aim not only to learn but also ignite discussions and encourage follow-up actions. These events will be open to any registrants, regardless of participation in the Top Projects or Hackathon component of #B3C.

Top Project

The Top Projects pillar of #B3C will give visibility to initiatives which have contributed to breaking barriers towards access to therapies and can serve as inspiration to our sector and beyond. The aim is to promote valuable solutions and increase the chances for scaling good initiatives across the Region.

All submissions will be carefully evaluated to measure projects for generated value and impact, in addition to considering the possibility to scale across regions and borders. a. The #B3C Jury will select 3 winning projects.

Hackathon

The Hackathon component of #B3C will look to define new and effective ideas to reduce the inequalities in cancer care as outlined in the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. This includes inequalities related to access to cancer knowledge, prevention, diagnosis, and care; existing inequalities among and between states; and inequalities linked to socio-economic status and proximity to care centers.

The Hackathon component of #B3C will occur over the course of several days, comprised of teams working together in virtual settings to hack one of the following challenges:

• How can data & digital tools help in bridging the gap of inequalities in and among countries?
• How can we strengthen Health Systems to lower barriers to healthcare delivery beyond product affordability?
• How can we activate civil society to engage more effectively in prevention, early detection, and treatment of cancer?

Teams will have the opportunity to seek expert input from a group of Mentors to help guide and develop projects before submission. Mentors will be available during the hackathon to provide expert insight on content, strategy, and presentation techniques.

Teams can be made up of individuals from different countries or groups. Solo participants are also invited to register and will be matched with a team for the duration of the competition.

All submissions will be carefully evaluated to measure projects for generated value and impact, in addition to considering the possibility to scale across regions and borders. The #B3C jury will select 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place projects.

The prizes for the best three ideas will be:

1. A total monetary prize from Novartis of EUR 10K: 5K to 1st classified; 3k to second classified; 2K to third classified
2. Mentorship from ScanBalt and Novartis to further refine the best idea, bring it to the next level of maturity and pressure test them with a group of experts and Start Up incubators in the Region
3. A virtual badge which can be used on Social Media and virtual networks, to show the achievement

About the organizers

ScanBalt is an innovation network that brings together academic and industrial research, university hospitals and non-university research institutions, study centres and highly specialised suppliers in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical technology sectors from different European countries and regions.

Novartis works to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people's lives. Using innovative science and technology to address some of society's most challenging healthcare issues, Novartis looks to discover and develop breakthrough treatments and find new ways to deliver them to as many people as possible.

Under the auspices of

In case of questions, please email: [email protected]

Event terms and conditions can be found following this link