In his speech at the First Gago Conference on European Science Policy, EU Research Commissioner Carlos Moedas proposes a mission on cancer in the next EU research and Innovation programme. "A mission on cancer makes sense now more than ever. It should be responding to one of our greatest societal challenges. It should be interdisciplinary, demand EU-level scale and create a sense of purpose for European citizens" Moedas said.
The Commision is currently shaping FP9 which should be more mission-oriented, which means transforming societal challenges into concrete problems that multiple sectors and different types of public and private actors can work together to solve. According to Moeadas, a mission should be responding to our greatest societal challenges. It should be interdisciplinary, demand EU-level scale and create a sense of purpose for European citizens. He states that a misson on cancer would respond to all of these criteria.