Strategy 2020-2023

Fostering innovation through research

To deliver ‘life-changing’ treatments scientific excellence and innovation must go hand-in-hand. One of our main challenges will be to strike the right balance between tried-and-tested science and innovation. While we strive for scientific excellence, we should also be ready to learn from failures and adapt our approach accordingly in our quest for better treatments.

PCR aims to become the gold standard for research that has an impact on advanced prostate cancer. We are committed to being at the forefront of innovation and fostering scientific excellence and, to this end, we will actively seek out exceptional science proposed by outstanding scientists. We will broaden the type of projects by systematically analysing and funding gaps within the prostate cancer research ecosystem that would have impact for patients by early 2020.

Leveraging partnerships

Looking out for and nurturing vibrant partnerships is part of the solution to speeding up the development of pioneering treatments for cancer patients in the UK and worldwide. We are actively seeking and building partnerships with other research organisations, such as Cancer Research UK, Prostate Cancer UK, Prostate Cancer Foundation and Tackle Prostate Cancer. These partnerships will reduce costs and maximise our collective impact.

Our focus on building relationships which stop us from replicating work that another organisation is already doing well such as support and advice. We will form multiple partnerships and relationships in 2020 in instances where there are complementary skills.

Over the next three years, PCR will build bridges between the scientific community, government, pharmaceutical industry and people with prostate cancer.

Learning and connecting

Our main objectives will be to foster a culture of continuous learning and to build a ‘shared’ sense of purpose and the autonomy to achieve goals. Capturing and preserving knowledge will also be critical to effectiveness and long-term success. We will retain a training budget of more than twice the sector average. We will run a series of workshops and training sessions for staff and scientists on how to develop the right skills to collaborate such as active listening skills, giving and being comfortable with constructive feedback and asking good questions.

We are determined to shift perspectives and put patients’ experiences at the heart of the next generation of treatments. This new approach will guide our research, information, funding and communication strategies.

Our ultimate objective is to establish a stronger connection between our scientists, the people we are serving and ourselves. We will develop a new quality of life research that directly responds to a wider range of the needs and challenges of patients in 2020.

Positioning PCR as a thought leader

To succeed in our mission, we need to further strengthen our credibility and reputation. It is not enough to do great work. We need to get better at demonstrating our impact – a strong and compelling brand will help us amplify the value we offer. To this end, we will need to shine a light on what we are doing and build our capacity to communicate it to targeted audiences. We will therefore grow our monitoring and communications capacity internally, and use selected advisors to help us reach our audiences by 2020 and beyond. To underpin this change, we will make the organisation far more accessible by presenting ourselves and our work in an inspiring and compelling way. By 2023, we aim to be recognised as the leading authority on prostate cancer research among the research community, decision-makers and funders.

Strengthening internal structure and processes

The impartiality and rigor of our processes are paramount in deciding on which are the correct programmes that will advance scientific understanding and the development of prostate cancer research. It is the responsibility of trustees, staff and advisors to understand the environment in which the charity is operating and to lead the charity in fulfilling its purposes as effectively as possible with the resources available. To do otherwise would be to fail beneficiaries, funders and supporters.

We have therefore assembled experts to advise us on all aspects of running a successful and robust research charity. In 2020 we will continue to analyse and assess our skills and experience and fill gaps that may exist in our scientific advisory committee, executive advisory group and board of trustees. We will induct these volunteers into the organisation properly and ensure they have transparent oversight of the day-to-day workings of the organisation.

Sustainable growth

To achieve sustainable growth, we must diversify our income streams and increase our unrestricted funding capacity to fulfil the scale-up in commitments we are making. Only in this way can we fulfil our commitment to broadening our research. We aim to build a recession-resilient organisation and have just committed ourselves to fund £2m worth of projects. Our research expenditure will be doubling and we plan to carry on increasing our grant expenditure.

We will take a dual approach of bidding for larger grants from government, trusts, companies and high-net-worth individuals, while also strategically investing funds to ensure we build up the type of flexible funding that comes from events and individual giving.

We have already scaled up our income from £1.3m to £2m over the last two years and we should see further significant growth this year. We will become more stable by testing and rolling out new approaches to fundraising. By 2023 we will submit over £8m of funding bids so that we can fully fund all our research. By then we will be a £5m organisation, funding at least 23 projects simultaneously.