Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

Their core work

The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) is a publicly funded, not-for-profit cancer research institute in Toronto that combines large-scale genomics, data science, and chemical biology to accelerate cancer discoveries toward clinical use. In H2020 consortia, they contribute two distinct capabilities: building federated, interoperable infrastructure for sharing cancer genomic data across international borders, and developing open-access chemical probes to validate drug targets across oncology, inflammation, neurodegeneration, and immunology. OICR is internationally recognized as a major node in the International Cancer Genome Consortium, and they bring Canadian scientific depth into European research consortia as a non-EU partner. Their participation in two RIA projects spanning data harmonization and chemical biology positions them as a dual-capability institute bridging bioinformatics and experimental drug discovery.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (starting 2019), OICR was focused squarely on cancer genomics data — standardization, harmonization, and federated sharing — reflecting their role as a major node in international cancer genome databases and data science infrastructure. By 2020, their second project shifted entirely into chemical biology and open-science drug discovery: chemogenomics, chemical probes, and target validation spanning cancer, neurodegeneration, and immunology, well beyond the cancer data focus of the first project. This trajectory signals a deliberate broadening from bioinformatics into experimental chemical biology, establishing OICR as an institute that can bridge computational and wet-lab drug discovery at scale.

OICR is moving toward open-science drug discovery infrastructure — particularly for understudied target classes such as SLC transporters and E3 ubiquitin ligases — making them a strong fit for any consortium working on systematic target validation, phenotypic screening, or disease-agnostic chemical biology platforms.

How they like to work

OICR participates exclusively as a consortium partner rather than coordinator — a structural feature of non-EU institutions in H2020, not a reflection of scientific standing. They engage in large, multi-partner Research and Innovation Actions, indicating comfort operating within complex international consortia with diverse institutional types. With 39 unique partners across 9 countries through just two projects, they are a highly networked organization that integrates smoothly into large European collaborative structures.

OICR has built connections with 39 unique partner organizations across 9 countries through only two H2020 projects, reflecting participation in large, densely networked consortia. Their reach spans Europe and North America, providing a transatlantic bridge that purely European partners cannot replicate.

What sets them apart

As a Canadian institute embedded in EU consortia, OICR brings access to Canadian patient cohorts, national data assets, and transatlantic regulatory context — assets that are structurally unavailable from European-only partners. Their simultaneous strength in cancer genomics informatics and open chemical probe development is rare: most research institutes operate in one domain or the other, not both. For pharma and biotech companies seeking publication-quality, open-access chemical tools for emerging target classes, OICR is one of the few non-commercial sources of validated probes at scale.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EUbOPEN
  A flagship open-science initiative (2020–2025) systematically producing open-access chemical probes for hundreds of poorly characterized drug targets — including the entire SLC transporter family and E3 ubiquitin ligases — across cancer, neurodegeneration, and inflammation, making it one of the most ambitious public target-validation programs in H2020 health research.
• EUCANCan
  Established the first federated, GDPR-compliant genomic data-sharing infrastructure linking EU and Canadian cancer research centers, creating a reusable interoperability model for cross-border precision oncology data at continental scale.