The ENCCA vision is to establish a durable, integrated clinical and translational research infrastructure for Europe that will define and implement its research strategy and will facilitate the necessary investigator-driven clinical trials to introduce the new generation of biologically targeted drugs into standard of care for children and adolescents with cancer. This will lead to more efficacious and less toxic therapies that will maximise the quality of life of the increasing number of survivors of cancer at a young age in Europe and allow them to assume their proper place in society. This biologically-driven research agenda will improve the training methods of clinical investigators and translational scientists of the future to spread excellence and increase the capacity to participate in research and monitor outcomes across Europe. Patients and their families will be full partners and will be better informed about the need for and processes of clinical research. They will be in a better situation to care for the long-term health risks for children and potential outcomes. Drug development for children will be accelerated in partnership with industry through improved access to young patients with cancer, to academic expertise in care, clincal and biological research. All of this will be achieved with respect for the highest ethical and patient safety standards. These goals will be achieved by a new integrated strategy to bring all stakeholders to the table in a timely and efficacious manner. ENCCA will address the needs of all the current multinational clinical trial groups in the field and aims to create a virtual European institute for research in childhood and adolescent cancers for the benefit of all those suffering from these diseases in Europe and beyond. ENCCA will provide them with common tools and approaches to solve the bottlenecks in testing new therapeutic strategies for those rare diseases in a vulnerable age group and in running a competitive clinical research agenda. ENCCA will be led by the most active European research institutes in the field, recognised as being at the forefront of excellence. Ongoing efforts to coordinate European and US clinical research in the field will be reinforced through increased communication and I mplementation of collaborative studies when relevant.