The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in collaboration with the European Association for Palliative Care, officially launched the European Palliative Care Research Centre on October 15, 2009. The center is supported by the Norwegian Cancer Society, Open Society Institute, Floriani Foundation, and Nycomed.
The center is the first-ever pan-European facility devoted to improving palliative care and end-of-life care for patients. It will focus on coordinating efforts between groups and individual researchers across Europe, specifically Scotland, England, Italy, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, along with the United States, Canada, and Australia. Researchers hope to increase the level of international multicenter studies, to create an international PhD program to educate young researchers in palliative care, and to develop evidence-based guidelines for palliative care. The center will have an open invitation to all active researchers in palliative care to participate.
"It is well acknowledged within the scientific field of palliative care that international collaboration is urgently needed in order to conduct sufficiently sized studies, as well as to evaluate the effect of new treatment strategies," said Augusto Caraceni, MD, of the Italian National Cancer Institute and vice president of the European Association for Palliative Care. Caraceni will also serve as the director of international affairs for the new center.
For more information about the launch, please see the NTNU press release. More information on the center is available on the Norwegian University of Science and Technology website.