At the Netherlands Cancer Institute, collaboration is essential to progress. Across the Netherlands, we work with academic, public and private partners to connect expertise, infrastructure and data, and to accelerate discovery, innovation and better care for patients.
These national collaborations strengthen our research environment, help bring new knowledge into practice and expand the impact of our science beyond the institute.
The NKI is an independent comprehensive cancer center with close ties to the Dutch universities and their academic hospitals. We hold 57 dedicated university chairs and currently host around 300 PhD students. All students have their own research project, which they work on to obtain a PhD degree. The NKI also offers master and bachelor students the possibility to undertake an internship research project in our research institute.
Through Amsterdam AI, the NKI is part of a broader network of knowledge institutes and public partners working to strengthen AI research and application in Amsterdam. This collaboration helps connect cancer research to wider developments in artificial intelligence and data-driven innovation..
In 2012 the NKI, University Medical Center Utrecht and Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, launched the Center for Personalized Cancer Treatment (CPCT), a national alliance in cancer genomics. The consortium now includes more than 45 hospitals in the Netherlands, including all academic hospitals. and helps build a shared foundation for precision oncology.
COIN, short for Circulating tumor DNA On the road to Implementation in the Netherlands, brings together the NKI, all Dutch academic hospitals, and many other public and private partners. The collaboration focuses on how ctDNA diagnostics can be implemented in a standardized way withing the Dutch healthcare system.
The NKI collaborates closely with Hartwig Medical Foundation (HMF). HMF systematically performs whole genome DNA analysis for patients with cancer in the Netherlands. The generated genetic data, treatment and treatment outcome data are stored in the Hartwig Medical Database. This is the largest database of WGS generated genetic and clinical data of patients with metastatic cancer in the world.
Health-RI is a Dutch non-profit foundation that supports a public-private partnership of more than 70 organizations working towards a national health-data infrastructure. For the NKI, this collaboration helps strengthen the broader data environment needed for research, innovation and personalized medicine.
Since 2020, the University of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Cancer Institute have worked together on AI algorithms that can help improve cancer treatment. As part of the Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI)., this lab connects expertise in cancer research with advanced AI methods.
Through the Oncology Graduate School Amsterdam (OOA), the NKI, Amsterdam UMC, the University of Amsterdam and the VU University Amsterdam offer a joint educational program for PhD students. This collaboration supports the next generation of cancer researchers in a shared academic environment.
PPALGA is the nationwide Dutch network and registry for histopathology and cytopathology. It promotes collaboration between pathology laboratories and helps make new knowledge available to healthcare. The PALGA data form the basis for the national cancer registry.
Smart Health Amsterdam connects key players in Amsterdam’s life sciences and health sector around data- and AI-driven innovation. For the NKI, it offers access to a wider network of scientists, clinicians, innovators, investors and public partners working on the future of health and care..
