Professor Ross Hannan has been appointed as the first Centenary Chair of Cancer Research at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University.

Professor Hannan is currently based at Melbourne's Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and will relocate to Canberra with his wife for the new role which he starts next year.

He will lead a collaborative cancer research hub involving researchers from ANU and clinicians from the Canberra Region Cancer Centre.

Professor Hannan plans to establish a new department focused on understanding the fundamental mechanisms of cancer biology and translating it into new treatments for people with cancer.

"The difference here is that it allows opportunity to really marry the university research on cancer with a new cancer research centre and so there's the opportunities there to build ... a united front to try and treat cancer and come up with new therapies," he said.

Professor Hannan's passion and drive for cancer research is as much personal as it is professional.

"Watching my wife go through a devastating cancer treatment and coming through that, and the only reason she made it through was because of the research that had been done previously, really made me realise that what we do is really meaningful and it does change people's lives," he said.

"I hope if we can give back some of that research to other cancer sufferers, then I think that will be a great thing."

Professor Hannan's appointment was announced on Tuesday by Chief Minister Katy Gallagher.

She said his appointment was part of the government's election promise to boost cancer services in the ACT by $20 million.

"What this does is for a relatively small amount of money in health dollars, when you think the annual health budget is well over $1 billion now, for $1.5 million, we're able to support the interaction of Professor Hannan and his research team and ANU have also put in funds to support it as well," she said.

Ms Gallagher said Professor Hannan's appointment was a coup for Canberra.

"For someone with Professor Hannan's reputation attracted from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to come here, absolutely," she said.

"It will attract young researchers who want to work as part of his team, I imagine it will attract research dollars to the ANU so it will be good for the John Curtin School and ultimately for those patients that are diagnosed with cancer in years to come, it's going to be benefit them as well so for us, it's a really positive announcement and it just makes good sense when we look at what small ways we can help support an initiative like this."

Ms Gallagher said the burden of the disease in Australia was significant.

"It affects everybody. I lost both my parents to the disease relatively young, I've lost two friends this year to the disease. It affects all of us, we can all tell stories like that and that's why this research is so important," she said.

The announcement of Professor Hannan's appointment also coincided with the start of a new ACT health partnership called Synergy in Canberra for Health.

It is a collaboration between ANU, University of Canberra, ACT Health and ACT Medicare Local.

Ms Gallagher said the partnership aimed to encourage new collaborations in health and medical research to improve health outcomes for Canberrans.

ACT Medicare Local chair Dr Rashmi Sharma said the partnership would connect research findings with policy and practice and provide additional ways for clinicians to inform research priorities.