Quality of life–integrated approaches to improve treatment of rare and/or hard-to-treat cancers through pragmatic clinical trials
The FORCE consortium is united by the shared ambition to create a structured and focused funding framework to support world-class patient-centred research tackling high and unmet patient needs in oncology. FORCE aims for practice changing evidence that is directly applicable to real world cancer care across Europe. The FORCE consortium will soon launch its first call for proposals supporting transnational, investigator initiated pragmatic clinical trials designed to improve treatment strategies for patients with rare and/or hard to treat cancers.
Ambition of the 1st FORCE Joint Call for Proposals
This call will support pragmatic clinical trials conducted in routine healthcare settings, with a systematic and explicit integration of quality of life outcomes alongside clinical effectiveness. Whereas explanatory trials mainly focus on clinical endpoints, FORCE supported studies are expected to place patients lived experience, treatment burden, and daily functioning at the center of research questions and decision making.
Submitted projects should address practical, clinically relevant questions that conventional regulatory trials frequently leave unanswered, such as how existing interventions can be used more effectively, safely, sustainably, and with less burden for patients. By embedding trials in everyday clinical practice and involving representative patient populations, FORCE aims to support studies with high implementation potential and rapid uptake across diverse European healthcare systems.
Launch in the week of June 29, 2026