Our mission

The PIONEER Consortium (Personalized Interventions and Outcomes in Neurosurgical Oncology Research Consortium) is a global, collaborative reserach platform that was established in 2019 to address the criticial lack of prospective, multicenter evidence in surgical neuro-oncology. It was previously known as the ENCRAM Consortium (European and North American Consortium and Registry for Intraoperative Brain Mapping in Glioblastoma) until 2024.

PIONEER brings together leading institutions across Europe, North America, South America, Asia, and Oceania and serves as a platform for multidisciplinary collaboration between neurosurgeons, neuro-oncologists, radiation oncologists, neuroradiologists, neuropathologists, speech pathologists, biostatisticians, data scientists, and legal experts. Our mission is to design and conduct rigorous, high-impact studies that aim to assess the optimal surgical treatment for diverse subgroups of brain tumor patients.

We aim to move beyond generalized treatment approaches by leveraging large, multicenter datasets and advanced computational modelling techniques such as deep learning to develop personalized surgical treatment plans for individual patients. Our efforts are grounded in transparency, equity, and collaboration: all participating centers retain ownership of their data, contribute to study leadership, and help shape the Consortium’s research direction.

Through this shared commitment, PIONEER strives to redefine the standard of care by integrating personalized, data-driven surgical decisions into the broader management of brain tumor patients, ultimately improving outcomes and quality of life for patients worldwide.