Scaling up early and late effects research in Lithuanian childhood cancer survivors through education and twinning

The SCARLET (SCAling up early and late effects Research in Lithuanian childhood cancer survivors through Education and Twinning) proposal aims to increase scientific excellence and innovation capacity at Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos (VULSK) and its affiliated entity National Cancer Institute (NCI) by scaling up research activities in Lithuanian childhood cancer survivors (CCS).

The area for twinning was defined based on the emerging importance of survivorship research due to the increasing number of CCS in Europe and identified gaps in Lithuania.

The key challenges addressed in the proposal are 1) lack of data on the prevalence of CCS in Lithuania exploitable in research initiatives; 2) poor transition from paediatric to adult care depriving young CCS over the age of 18 of advantages of surveillance in a research context; 3) the need to implement innovative solutions for monitoring and prevention of early and late effects through joint research activities; 4) suboptimal competences in management and administration of large-scale research projects.

Four research-intensive institutions from 4 European countries will bring to the consortium their specific expertise to address identified shortcomings.

The proposal aims to build on and exploit current shared research initiatives that will be leveraged to achieve SCARLET’s goal and objectives.

The twinning exercise will be implemented through secondments of Lithuanian staff to the partner premises and engagement in the research activities led by partner institutions, organisation of educational events, and participation in knowledge-of-transfer meetings.

As a result of the twinning activities, VULSK and NCI will improve their research profile and reputation, international visibility, and attractiveness.

The expanded networking channels will facilitate Lithuanian professionals to join international research groups focused on survivorship research ultimately improving the quality of survival in Lithuania.