The government will be funding cancer research for the first time ever, parliamentary secretary Keith Azzopardi Tanti has said.

Next year’s budget has allocated €800,000 to the cause and the plan is to “hit the ground running from January,” the junior minister for research and innovation said.

Mater Dei Hospital, the University of Malta and international universities and hospitals will be cooperating in the initiative.

Calls for researchers will be issued in January by the government or the university.

Azzopardi Tanti said he would like to see research into how artificial intelligence can help with cancer treatment.

“AI is not limited to information technology but has uses in other sectors like education and health,” he said.

“Every five hours, someone is given the news that they have cancer.”

Nearly a third (29 per cent) of deaths in Malta are due to cancer.

“We saw that Malta could do a lot in this field and after we proposed the idea, the finance ministry is allocating €800,000 in this budget,” he said.