The Dutch Research Council (NWO) develops innovative programs aimed at addressing societal challenges in the Netherlands. These programs emphasize cooperation between knowledge institutions, private entities, and the government. One such challenge is the rising number of cancer cases, projected to increase from 800,000 in 2022 to 1.4 million by 2031. This means that 1 in 2 people in the Netherlands will receive a cancer diagnosis during their lifetime. Another pressing challenge is dementia—1 in 5 people are expected to develop this condition—and, on average, one person per day in the Netherlands is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. To tackle these growing concerns, NWO is providing 25 million euros in funding.
Two research consortia, involving collaboration between research, industry, and society, have been selected for the NWO Long Term Program-KIC funding. One of them, the ADORE project, will unite the fields of oncology and neurology, leveraging their complementary expertise to achieve urgently needed scientific breakthroughs.
The ADORE Research & Diagnostics Center will be the largest onco-neuro campus in the world, with over 2,000 researchers from Cancer Center Amsterdam and Amsterdam Neurosciencejoining forces. They have one common goal: effective, personalized treatment, for every patient. To do so, shared mechanisms that drive disease progression between the two disease types will be identified, and shared expertise and infrastructure will accelerate such findings. Investigating molecular and cellular processes shared by cancer and neurodegenerative diseases is expected to improve treatment options and develop new therapies. The 9 million awarded to ADORE will be invested into a 30 million, 10-year research program to which the ADORE foundation ,Amsterdam UMC and partners Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Leiden University Medical Center, UMC Utrecht, TU Delft ,OMAPiX and Pivot Park have contributed.
More information
Read more on the funding at the Dutch Research Council:
Or watch the video in Dutch about ADORE with Guus Smit, Geert Kazemier, Niels van Buren and Dennis de Graaf.