Cancer is a major societal health issue in Europe. In 2012, cancer accounted for around 1.3 million deaths and an estimated economic impact of around € 126 billion in the European Union (EU).<br/>The Instituto de Medicina Molecular (IMM) aims to fight this destructive disease by reinforcing its capacity for outstanding pre-clinical and translation research, and by creating a dynamic cluster of excellence within the Lisbon region in the field of cancer research. Towards this goal, IMM is building up a network for outstanding research and innovation with two leading research institutes, the Institut Curie (the largest European cancer research centre), and the DFKZ - Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (the largest cancer research institute in Germany), the ReTuBi consortium. ReTuBi targets 4 specific scientific areas: Cancer Stem Cells; Cancer Signalling; Cancer Invasion and Metastasis; and Tumour Angiogenesis. ReTuBi is designed to stimulate the establishment of novel and long-lasting interactions between groups at IMM, Institut Curie and DFKZ. The dynamic and intensive research framework is focused on promoting the exchange of know-how in research excellence and cutting-edge technologies to tackle current and future challenges in tumour biology. Through this initiative, ReTuBi expects an increase of 30% in multiple indicators until 2020, including the number of citations per publication; h-index of IMM researchers; percentage of publications in top 10% impact journals; number of filed patents; and number of international collaborative projects. ReTuBi will also have an impact in the entire IMM community and Lisbon area, through organisation of open scientific meetings, summer schools, and workshops.<br/>ReTuBi extensive dynamic network of interactions will provide a channel of knowledge transfer to potentiate already existent scientific and innovative capacity within IMM, promoting an overall increase in competitiveness of Portugal and EU.