Pink October and Breast Cancer Awareness Month have ended, underscoring global solidarity in the fight against breast cancer. Nevertheless, funding academic breast cancer research remains a pressing challenge that we must address to continue to make progress towards better treatments and cures.
In this edition of BIG Research in Focus, the featured article, “Overcoming the challenges of funding academic breast cancer research”, delves into the increasing difficulties associated with securing funds for this vital work. Experts from the BIG network and beyond, including Drs Carlos Barrios, David Cameron, Vassilis Golfinopoulos, Theodora Goulioti, Larry Norton, and Ines Vaz-Luis, provide valuable insights on how to address these challenges, offering guidance for those seeking research grants.
The section “BIG Network” includes updates on the BIG Executive Board and BIG members, as well as an overview of Pink October activities carried out by BIG Headquarters (HQ) in Brussels.
BIG against breast cancer, BIG’s dedicated philanthropic unit, designed and launched BIG’s 2023 awareness and fundraising campaign entitled “I miss you”. Through the campaign, we aimed to increase awareness about the importance of global academic breast cancer research.
For the fifth consecutive year, BIG HQ and the EORTC hosted their annual Pink October webinar. Given the growing hurdles in securing funding, the webinar also focused on this topic.
The section “BIG Clinical Trials and Activities” features an update article on the launch of the second phase of the AURORA research programme, provides an overview of recently published manuscripts related to BIG trials, presents highlights from BIG at conferences, and showcases BIG members’ research and related activities around the world. In the section “Current Studies Run within the BIG Network”, we present an overview table with the status of the BIG trials and research programmes.
In closing, we extend our warm appreciation for your continued support and collaboration. As we reflect on the achievements of the BIG network and the ongoing endeavours of the BIG community, we also look forward to 2024, which holds special significance as it marks BIG’s 25th anniversary. More details on this milestone will follow soon.
Together, we will cure breast cancer!
