CO-CAPTAIN Pilots – August 2025 Update

On 29 September 2025, CO-CAPTAIN took part in the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Prevention & Early Detection Cluster, held at the Catalan Public Health Secretariat in Barcelona and organised by the PIECES Project.

The event brought together all six projects in the cluster — CO-CAPTAIN, PIECES, PREVENT, 4P-CAN, Cancer Prevention at Work (CPW) and ONCODIR — to exchange progress updates, share challenges, and explore joint proposals in the field of cancer prevention, with a strong focus on implementation science.

The session was opened by Cristina Martínez, coordinator of the PIECES Project, who welcomed the participants and introduced the objectives for the day. It also included the participation of the cluster’s Project Officer, Laura García Ibáñez, who offered a brief overview of the progress made so far and outlined expectations and upcoming steps for the cluster’s next phase.

A public round table

The meeting began with a public round table moderated by Dr. Wolfgang Fecke (ECL), featuring representatives from each project.

Thanassis Mavropoulos, ONCODIR: Project Coordinator, Post Doctoral Researcher – Information Technologies Institute – Centre for Research and Technology Hellas
Bethany Hipple, PIECES: PhD Senior Researcher – Trimbos Institute for Mental Health
Joy Ngo, PREVENT: Researcher – Foundation University Institute for Primary Health Care Research (IDIAPJGol)
Anna Schneider-Kamp, CPW: PhD, Associate Professor – University of Southern Denmark
Marius Geantă, 4P-CAN: Project Coordinator, President and Co-Founder – Centre for Innovation in Medicine
Ascensión Doñate-Martínez, CO-CAPTAIN: PhD, Senior Researcher – Polytechnic University of Valencia, Biomedical Data Science Lab

Representing CO-CAPTAIN, Ascensión Doñate (UPV) shared the project’s experience implementing a Patient Navigation model tailored to individuals with mental health conditions, highlighting progress across pilot sites and reflecting on the challenges of translating evidence into practice.
During the discussion, key topics such as institutional collaboration, the role of digital tools in interventions, and personalised prevention within European health policies were also addressed.

Thematic working groups

Following earlier exchanges and initial progress within the cluster’s working groups, the in-person meeting in Barcelona provided a valuable opportunity to renew collaborative momentum, strengthen synergies, and reflect more deeply on shared strategic priorities.

Participants were divided into five thematic working groups:

Data Management Plan
Research & Innovation
Citizen Engagement
Communication & Dissemination
Inequalities

Each group was led by representatives from different cluster projects and focused on reviewing how each area is being addressed, identifying common ground, and proposing collaborative actions for the coming months.

Within CO-CAPTAIN, our commitment to health equity was reflected in our coordination of the Inequalities working group, led by Alejandro Gil-Salmerón (IFIC). Under his facilitation, participants collectively explored how to address structural inequalities in prevention across different project approaches, and proposed concrete actions to move toward more inclusive and context-sensitive solutions.

Laura Domínguez (Kveloce) represented CO-CAPTAIN in the Communication & Dissemination group, where the cluster’s next joint communication steps were defined. In this session, the upcoming final event of the project in 2026 was identified as a key opportunity to showcase the cluster’s collective achievements and amplify shared messages around prevention and mental health.

Each group had one hour of focused discussion, followed by a plenary session to present conclusions. Every working group shared 2 to 3 key ideas to develop collaboratively during the remainder of the project.

This shared working space reinforced the cluster’s commitment to aligning efforts, strengthening its collective impact, and advancing a more effective, equitable, evidence-based approach to cancer prevention.

A closing with forward vision

The day concluded with a Recommendations Workshop, where teams jointly developed proposals to help better connect research, practice, and policy. The resulting conclusions will be incorporated into future joint deliverables and serve as a foundation for ongoing collaborative action.

From CO-CAPTAIN, we are grateful for the opportunity to continue building bridges between evidence and action alongside the rest of the cluster projects.