The EAPC research network, the EPCRC and sunshine in the Lofoten islands

The European Association for Palliative Care Research Network (EAPCRN) was established in 1996 by Franco de Conno (Milan), and the ideas behind it implicitly recognised that networks are essential for palliative care research. The number of patients available for clinical research in any one centre is always going to be relatively small and that means that collaborative studies are necessary to recruit sufficient patients in a reasonable period of time. de Conno was ahead of his time because it soon became clear that palliative care research activity and expertise in different countries in Europe varied considerably, and it was not feasible to launch into large multicentre clinical trials at the outset because only a handful of centres were in a position to participate in them. This had been one of the initial ideas behind the setting up of the Research Network. The EAPCRN decided to adopt a different strategy in those early years. Expert working groups were set up to review areas of controversy or areas that were particularly topical at the time and to draw up clinical guidelines based on the available evidence. The Research Network went on to organise a cross-sectional survey of palliative care in Europe which demonstrated the great potential of palliative care research networks to work in a coherent and collaborative fashion across many different countries and cultures. In that study, 143 centres in 21 countries provided data on more than 3000 patients. Much groundwork has been done on which to build and develop international collaboration amongst palliative care researchers. Earlier this year, the 5th Research Forum of the EAPC was held in Trondheim, Norway. By general consensus, it was an excellent meeting. Preceding the meeting in Trondheim was a preconference seminar jointly organised by the EAPC and the European Palliative Care Research Collaborative (EPCRC). The EPCRC brings together 11 centres in six European countries (Norway, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UK) in a project funded by the EU within the 6th Framework Programme: ‘Improved treatment of pain, depression and fatigue through translational research’, and one of the aims is to develop a long lasting European collaborative in palliative care cancer research. The EPCRC is led by Stein Kaasa in Trondheim and its aims are as follows: