Three and a half years of working together shows that the creation of a distributed centre of excellence, the National Institute for Cancer Research, as part of the concept of the EXCELES National Plan of Renewal, was the right decision. We have concentrated the selected expertise of eleven partners into a coordinated network with hubs in Prague, Brno, and Olomouc. This model has enabled the formation of many professional relationships that probably would not have been otherwise established and has demonstrably led to a gradual but significant growth in the number of shared outputs and new interinstitutional and international grant projects. Interinstitutional collaborations became a common part of the work of the consortium and their year-on-year increase since the beginning of NICR’s existence is evident.
Especially notable is the trend in publication activities: every year, we see more articles in leading journals, whereby the growing proportion of works published in the first decile journals indicates stabilisation and growth in quality. We see a similar trend also in terms of personnel. Thanks to NICR, completely new research teams were created, mostly around successful ‘returnees’, and we were joined by dozens of scientists from abroad. We have expanded the portfolio of doctoral programmes, which systematically train future leaders. One can observe a growth in the number of defended dissertations, habilitations, and professorships, which jointly forms a clear investment into the development of academic oncology in our country.
A significant expansion characterises also the development of technical equipment and technologies, which manifested itself not just by an ad hoc modernisation of equipment but mainly by increasing use of shared infrastructures. Proteomic, genomic, and advanced imaging facilities not only provide ever more robust opportunities for scientists but also support the formulation of new projects. We can observe an increase in the amount of formally codified international partnerships and involvement in European research structures, which further strengthens the long-term reach and position of NICR within the European research space.
A specific area where we can see a continual growth and consolidation of NICR as a whole are its educational and popularising activities: there are more workshops, summer schools, and popular science events, and interest in participation is increasing every year. Hundreds of secondary-school students have had the opportunity to experience, for the first time, work in a research environment; such activities have the potential of influencing the future of the academic community. Czech Annual Cancer Research Meeting had gradually become established as a platform for academic and collegial ‘community’ discussions. It has also become a place for the strategic management of the NICR project, where representatives of the individual programmes of NICR meet, discuss with ISAB, statutory representatives, and representatives of partners.
All this, however, is based on a less easily quantifiable but crucial fact: what emerged is a functional culture of cooperation. Groups that previously did not collaborate nowadays share facilities, how-how, and projects. We see a stable increase in joint grants and publications, and a growing intensity of contacts between clinical departments and research teams creates space for a faster transfer of new findings into clinical practice. Previously separate segments started to transform into a functioning network that can hold its own in international comparison. These developments form the foundation for the next stage of sustainability. Where we see a great potential for the future is a further strengthening of translational research, systematic work with data, development of shared infrastructure, and support of the incoming generation of researchers. NICR should keep functioning as a stable platform that not only links academic work with clinical practice but, in virtue of serving as a national authority, identifies and provides expert support for addressing societal needs in a way where the quality and quantity of results grow naturally, not due to a formal administrative pressure.
I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart everyone who participates in this work. What we have created is not a closed unit but a firm foundation of the philosophy of further development of Czech cancer research, its intergenerational sustainability, and its prosperity.
Aleksi Šedo, Director of NICR