The ON-COME Consortium proudly announces the outstanding success of its official Kick-Off Meeting, held on 6–7 October 2025 at the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS (Gemelli) in Rome. The event marked the formal launch of ON-COME, an EU4Health-funded initiative designed to advance psychosocial support and rehabilitation services for children and families receiving care in pediatric oncology across Europe.

Hosted at one of Europe’s leading centres of excellence in child and oncological care, the meeting brought together clinical leaders, psychologists, neurosurgeons, data scientists, innovators, and policy experts from across the consortium to align on the project’s vision, execution strategy, and next steps.

Gemelli and Prof. Daniela Pia Rosaria Chieffo Lead the Project

The ON-COME project is coordinated by Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, with Prof. Daniela Pia Rosaria Chieffo serving as the Principal Investigator (PI). A distinguished leader in psycho-oncology and neuropsychology, Prof. Chieffo presented the project’s scientific direction and emphasised the pivotal importance of integrating psychological, cognitive, and holistic support into the pediatric oncology journey.

EAPM’s Role in Policy and Outreach

EAPM will lead ON-COME’s policy, dissemination, and ecosystem-building activities, acting as a bridge to EU and national policymakers and funding agencies to ensure long-term sustainability and adoption of project outcomes.

Project Ambition and Impact

ON-COME has a clear and ambitious goal: to transform psychosocial and rehabilitative care for children and adolescents with cancer by developing a unified, evidence-based model that can be implemented across Europe. The project will:

  • Map and standardise psychosocial and rehabilitation services across Member States
  • Develop innovative digital tools to improve assessment, communication, and care delivery
  • Provide targeted training for healthcare professionals to strengthen multidisciplinary expertise
  • Pilot unified psycho-oncology service models across multiple countries
  • Generate high-quality evidence to guide national and EU-level uptake
By integrating clinical, neuropsychological, digital, and policy dimensions, ON-COME aims to reduce fragmentation, ensure equitable access to high-quality psychosocial support, and embed new standards of care into national health systems. The project’s long-term ambition is to shape policy, strengthen service delivery, and improve quality of life for young patients and their families throughout Europe, creating genuine system-level and societal impact.

Two Days of High-Level Exchange and Collaboration

The Kick-Off Meeting included:

  • A comprehensive overview of ON-COME’s objectives, impacts, and KPIs
  • Presentations from all Work Packages, including digital innovation, training, pilots, data management, and ethical governance
  • Workshops on mapping psychosocial services and defining end-user needs
  • Guidance from HaDEA on EU programme rules and expectations
  • A session on synergies with the IMPACT-EU project
  • A consortium dinner and cultural visit to the Vatican Museums to strengthen collaboration and community

The event showcased the consortium’s exceptional expertise and collective commitment to driving meaningful progress in pediatric cancer care.

A Strong Start for a Transformative European Initiative

With Gemelli and Prof. Chieffo providing scientific leadership, and EAPM enabling strategic policy engagement, ON-COME begins its journey with a powerful foundation. The consortium looks forward to delivering actionable innovation, practical tools, and enduring improvements to psychosocial care across Europe.