Maarten Bijlsma - “A leading role in European consortia”
It is a striking opinion from the newly appointed scientific director of the Cancer Center Amsterdam research institute: "We should aim to publish less". This is one of the lessons that Maarten Bijlsma, director of CCA since November 2023, has learned during his time at Berkeley. "The pace there is slower, allowing things to mature better. What we could do here as well is focus more on quality rather than quantity. In general, Dutch academic hospitals perform well. We publish a lot. We are good, but not exceptionally good. Therefore, one of the action points at CCA for the coming years is to publish fewer papers and focus more on things that really endure - high quality and impactful research."
Along with his co-director Geert Kazemier, Bijlsma also mentions the approach 'valorization with courage.' "We need to dare more and not be afraid to occasionally fail. As a research institute, we should facilitate more high-risk high-gain projects; these may not be certain to succeed, but when they do, something truly beautiful may emerge."
With research, education, and healthcare tasks, CCA is one of the largest cancer centers in Europe with a strong position in the academic field. However, according to Maarten, the research institute has relatively poorly visability. Both within Amsterdam UMC and externally, there is room for improvement.
Maarten believes that the strong position of CCA mainly concerns translational research – translating fundamental research into clinical applications. "We have the right patient groups. We have good research. The challenge in the coming years is making a stronger connection between the lab and the clinic by not only bringing findings from the lab to the clinic, but vice versa, bringing the findings or questions from the clinic to the lab."
In terms of translational research, Bijlsma sees good opportunities for scientific collaboration with NKI/AvL, the partner in the strategic alliance, and also in the region and Europe. "I think we should move more towards consortiums in a European context, so that we can work together to share knowledge and finance increasingly expensive scientific research. We should definitely strive for a leading role in European consortia, especially in domains where we excel, such as gastroenterological oncology or hematology."
To learn about the plans of the other new directors, take a look at the article in the Janus magazine (in Dutch).