In conjunction with a series of summits being held across the country this week, the White House has announced public- and private-sector commitments to bolster its proposed $1 billion "moonshot" to accelerate cancer research.

Commitments announced by the Cancer Moonshot Task Force include a collaboration between the National Institute of Health, twelve biopharmaceutical companies, multiple research foundations, other philanthropies, and the Foundation for the NIH to develop a Partnership for Accelerating Cancer Therapies that will fund pre-competitive cancer research and share all data generated for further research.

Private-sector commitments were announced by Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, which plans to double its investment in childhood cancer research projects and family services to $150 million over the next five years and open a state-of-the-art bioinformatics lab that will use "big data" to advance the pace of childhood cancer research; the Laura and John Arnold Foundation will provide support for the Digital Mammography DREAM Challenge, the first in a series of competitions to be held as part of the Coding4Cancer initiative, and a collaboration of the Global Alzheimer's Platform, Medecision, PwC, and Amida Technology Solutions that will work to increase the number of patients who participate in clinical trials for cancer and Alzheimer's disease; and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, which announced that it plans to double its annual cancer research investment from $50 million to $100 million by 2021, with the goal of a cumulative investment of $1 billion. The American Cancer Society also committed to doubling its research budget over the next five years; the organization currently spends approximately $100 million a year in new grants to academic research institutions and another $15 million to $20 million annually on its own intramural research.