Programmes We Fund

GAP is Movember’s Global Action Plan. Launched in 2010, it was set up to address critical challenges in prostate cancer research through global collaboration.

As a result of working with global prostate cancer partners, Movember identified an opportunity to accelerate research outcomes by providing researchers from around the world with the opportunity to work together on specific projects.
 
By bringing together international researchers, GAP facilitates a new and unprecedented level of global research collaboration, not previously seen within the prostate cancer community. Over time, researchers coming together to share data, what worked, what didn’t, will avoid duplication of research efforts and deliver a greater return on the funds that Movember and other organisations invest in prostate cancer research.   
 
Today, more than 100 of the world's top prostate cancer researchers have joined Movember’s GAP, all of them committed to working together on research and sharing their knowledge in the area.

HOW GAP WORKS
A small percentage of the funds raised in each country are allocated to a global fund.  The global fund is then allocated to one priority project each year that is determined by an independent Global Scientific Committee (GSC). The GSC is comprised of internationally renowned prostate cancer experts from around the world, and chaired by prostate cancer expert Dr Colleen Nelson. Each year, Movember’s GSC comes together to determine a key research area that would benefit most from global collaboration. Once the priority area is endorsed by Movember’s Board, the best prostate cancer researchers in the world from both Movember and non-Movember countries are brought together and funded to collaborate and answer a pre-determined issue or question.
 
Once the researchers are recruited they collaborate through a variety of media, including Movember’s online collaboration platform Promoveo, which provides a secure wiki based forum, conference calls, and an annual meeting.


Head of Programmes at Movember, Paul Villanti:

“Our vision is to have an everlasting impact on the state of men’s health and it’s to this end that we established our GAP. We believe that getting the best researchers from around the world to work together on key challenges will accelerate breakthroughs that will ultimately benefit men with prostate cancer. Further, we believe that team-based research, performed across borders with a strong collaborative mindset, can deliver innovation and knowledge sharing which leads to an acceleration of results that benefit men diagnosed and living with prostate cancer today.”

Currently, Movember's GAP has two programmes on the go:

GAP 1 – THE GLOBAL PROSTATE CANCER BIOMARKER INITIATIVE

Overall Goal: To better predict aggressive prostate cancer, characterise metastatic disease and treatment resistance by identifying clinical biomarkers that ultimately enhance treatment decisions.

The initiative aims to answer critical, but as yet unresolved, clinical questions which will allow clinicians to better predict aggressive prostate cancer and characterise metastatic disease and treatment resistance by identifying clinical biomarkers that ultimately enhance patient treatment decisions.

The key results that we seek to achieve from this project are:

•    Stronger international collaboration in the global prostate cancer research arena leading to improved knowledge sharing and more efficient research.
•    Development of promising new blood, urine and tissue based tests (biomarkers) that can more accurately predict low risk versus high risk prostate cancer and optimise a patient's treatment decisions.

Movember appointed Dr Mark Buzza as the Programme Manager to implement GAP. If you would like more information on the GAP Program or the GAP 1 biomarker project, contact Mark at mark@movember.com.

GAP 2 – COLLABORATIVE GLOBAL IMAGING PROJECT

Overall Goal: Push the limits of prostate cancer imaging breakthroughs

Imaging is a truly “front-line” investigative tool in diagnosing cancer. Current technology can only see down to around 1mm in size and as cancer spreads at a cellular level (typically around 1000 x smaller than this), there is real benefit in making improvements in this area. There is a real need to improve the ability to detect disease progression at a much earlier stage, so as to improve outcomes for men with prostate cancer.

The key results that we seek to achieve from this project are:

•    Detect the spread of prostate cancer much sooner
•    Make better decisions on which treatments will lead to the most effective outcomes for patients
•    Identify synergies established in GAP 1 through the work done  as a collaborative network and continue to leverage from this  investment

Movember has appointed Sam Gledhill as the Project Manager to implement the GAP 2 project. If you would like more information on GAP 2, contact Sam at sam@movember.com.

PROMOVEO

One of the primary ways that our GAP researchers spread across the world and collaborate is through Movember’s online collaboration platform, Promoveo. This is a Latin term which means to push forward, move ahead, or advance, and that is exactly the aim of the online platform which Movember has custom built for the prostate cancer research community.
 
Collaboration is at the heart of Movember’s Global Action Plan and in order for this to happen in practice a key deliverable is the creation of a fit-for-purpose online communication platform to help GAP researchers work together more easily. Promoveo connects the GAP community across the world and helps them work together across scientific disciplines and multiple time zones.
 
At a very simple level, it’s a bit like Linkedin, with discussion and collaboration forums exclusively for the prostate cancer community. In short, it aims to accomplish the following:

•    Connect the global prostate cancer community  
•    Showcase the program and its participants
•    Allow researchers to collaborate by sharing knowledge
•    Search for and share resources
•    Project tracking and management tool
•    Communication channel

This page will be regularly updated with progress on all of the GAP programs and details of new initiatives funded by GAP. Please check back to see how Movember funds are truly making a difference at a global level, thanks to the on-going support of the Movember community.