Programs We Fund

Accelerating research outcomes through global collaboration
The Movember Foundation’s vision is to have an everlasting impact on the state of men’s health. To this end Movember has established the Movember Global Action Plan (GAP), which aims to accelerate prostate cancer outcomes through global research collaboration.

Working with our prostate cancer partners in each country over the last few years, we identified an opportunity to accelerate research outcomes that benefit men by providing researchers around the world the ability to work together to address critical research challenges. Given our presence internationally, Movember is uniquely placed to address this challenge by facilitating and funding a new and bold approach to prostate cancer research collaboration that fast tracks outcomes.

To direct the GAP research priorities an independent Global Scientific Committee (GSC) has been established, comprised of internationally renowned prostate cancer experts from around the world.

GSC Independent Chair, Dr Colleen Nelson, knows the importance of Movember’s GAP:
“Prostate cancer research is often most effective when multi-disciplinary teams across different research institutions work together to address key scientific challenges. This is usually done within a given center, occasionally across one country. Rarely is there an opportunity to do this on a global scale. Movember GAP provides an unprecedented challenge and opportunity to unite prostate cancer researchers across the globe to achieve key breakthroughs faster.”



Movember’s GAP program currently has two elements:

1. Annual global collaborative research project
The overall goal of the global collaborative research project is to accelerate research outcomes through collaboration on annually identified priority scientific questions. These projects complement our substantial national research programs provided by our prostate cancer partners. 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 faster than research conducted primarily at a national level.

Each year Movember’s Global Scientific Committee (GSC) convenes a meeting to determine the number one research area that could benefit most from global collaboration. Once the priority area is endorsed by Movember’s Board then the best prostate cancer researchers in the world from both Movember and non-Movember countries are brought together and funded to collaborate and answer that question. Funded programs will be no more than two years in duration, and will be required to deliver data and measurable outcomes within that timeframe, with reporting of interim milestones.

Importantly, the execution of the global collaborative research projects will lead to the generation of key data that will be shared freely with the entire prostate cancer community and beyond, via the Movember website. Over time, the sharing of this data will avoid unnecessary duplication of research effort and deliver greater return on the funds that Movember and other organizations invest in prostate cancer research.

The objective of the 2010 global collaborative research project, the global prostate cancer biomarker initiative is to answer critical, but as yet unanswered, clinical questions which will allow clinicians to better predict aggressive prostate cancer and characterize metastatic disease and treatment resistance by identifying clinical biomarkers that ultimately enhance patient treatment decisions. Movember has appointed a Global Research Program Manager, Dr Mark Buzza, to implement the program and is currently in the process of establishing the regional leadership teams for its first initiative. The aim is to start funding integrated research activities as part of this initiative by Q3 2011.

For more information please contact Mark on mark@movember.com or +61 3 8416 3900.

2. Promoveo - a prostate cancer knowledge exchange platform
Movember is creating a global, online community for prostate cancer researchers, clinicians and organizations called Promoveo. Similar to LinkedIn, but tailored specifically for the prostate cancer research community, Promoveo members can share ideas, find out what key research resources are available in other countries, post information to foster discussion, and connect with other researchers from across the globe to drive outcomes.

Stemming from Latin, Promoveo means to move forward, accomplish, advance, bring to light. Our aim is to create a forum for free information exchange about prostate cancer research that will accelerate outcomes. Imagine what possible opportunities may arise when a prostate cancer researcher in the Netherlands, for example, is able to connect with other researchers involved in the same field in Australia, Canada, the UK, US, and Brazil to share knowledge and resources.