Press Release
LIH Contributes to New EU Effort to Improve Access to Cancer Data
As part of the European CANDLE project, the Department of Medical Informatics at the LIH is helping make cancer data more usable for research and care across borders
The Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) is contributing to the newly launched EU-funded CANDLE project, which aims to support the development of National Cancer Data Nodes across Europe. These trusted infrastructures will help improve the way cancer data is accessed, shared, and reused, with the goal of advancing research and informing healthcare decisions.
As part of the European CANDLE project, the Department of Medical Informatics (DMI) at the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) is contributing towards the development of National Cancer Data Nodes: secure systems that will improve the accessibility and usability of cancer-related data for research and healthcare.
The DMI’s work focuses on identifying the needs of researchers and clinicians, as well as supporting efforts to overcome technical and legal barriers to cross-border data sharing. These contributions are crucial to ensure that the data infrastructures built under CANDLE are both interoperable and aligned with the goals of the future European Health Data Space (EHDS).
Our role in CANDLE is to help guarantee that the infrastructure reflects real-world needs while safeguarding trust and compliance. By contributing our expertise in medical informatics, we support the broader goal of enabling more effective, data-driven cancer research across Europe,
said Maximilian Fünfgeld, Director of the Department of Medical Informatics at the LIH.
Driving integration across Europe, CANDLE will also play a strategic role in supporting the European Health Data Space (EHDS) by establishing a federated network of national nodes in the cancer domain. These nodes will serve as demonstrators for national disease-specific implementations of the EHDS, aligning EU-wide health data policy with local requirements.
The project also helps put the EU Mission on Cancer and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan into practice by supporting national implementation and promoting collaboration across major initiatives. Along with 40 other partners in national health, cancer research, patient advocacy, and major European Research Infrastructures, the CANDLE consortium is well positioned to strengthen data sharing, improve access, and foster collaboration across sectors and borders.
About the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH)
The Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) is a public biomedical research organisation focused on precision health and invested in becoming a leading reference in Europe for the translation of scientific excellence into meaningful benefits for patients.
The LIH places the patient at the heart of all its activities, driven by a collective obligation towards society to use knowledge and technology arising from research on patient derived data to have a direct impact on people’s health. Its dedicated teams of multidisciplinary researchers strive for excellence, generating relevant knowledge linked to immune related diseases and cancer.
The institute embraces collaborations, disruptive technology and process innovation as unique opportunities to improve the application of diagnostics and therapeutics with the long-term goal of preventing disease.