From June 1st to June 3rd, the CANDLE consortium came together in Lisbon and online for its 2026 Annual Meeting, marking the project’s first year and setting the direction for the next phase of work. Hosted by ISCTE (Portugal), the three-day programme brought together more than 60 participants from the consortium, pilot National Cancer Data Nodes (NCDNs), European Research Infrastructures, policy, research, healthcare organisations, patient-related actors, and European initiatives.
The meeting opened on June 1st with a warm-up day dedicated to the CANDLE Maturity Model and the Portuguese oncology ecosystem. Participants discussed how the model can support NCDN development, reflected on pilot experiences from Finland and Spain, and explored individual maturity domains in an interactive world café. In parallel, Portuguese stakeholders exchanged on the national oncology research and care landscape, common needs and links to European initiatives such as CANDLE, UNCAN-Connect, ECHoS and EU-CiP.
The main event June 2nd and 3rd focused on how CANDLE can help Member States develop flexible, EHDS-ready NCDNs that make cancer data more FAIR and usable for research. Sessions addressed the anchoring of NCDNs in EHDS developments, their value for Member States, real-life examples from Germany, Lithuania and Ireland, and the emerging CANDLE Resource Kit.
Learn more about the lessons learned and overall meeting outcomes. | 
