Author: Anna Sundin

JPIAMR is proud to launch the new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), which has been broadened to include antifungal research and innovation priorities.

JPIAMR has held a series of consultations with the antifungal research community to incorporate antifungal research priorities in to the JPIAMR SRIA. The SRIA is a prime guiding tool for AMR research prioritisation in investments, research activities and planning for JPIAMR member states and other funding initiatives. It is also one of the most thorough guidelines on AMR research, helping researchers, policymakers, media, educators, health workers and the scientific community to work together on solutions to curb AMR on a global scale.

Read more and download the new SRIA.

The JPIAMR will be holding a webinar in alignment with the launch of the broadened JPIAMR SRIA: Supporting Transnational Research Collaboration on Fungal Drug Resistance. The webinar will be held on 28 April 2021, 14.00-16.45 CET, and is organised in collaboration with the Israel Ministry of Health.

Read more and register to the webinar.

The JPIAMR has led and facilitated a series of webinars on ’AMR in a post-pandemic world’. Two articles have recently been published summarising the outcomes of the webinars and discussing the potential impact of COVID-19 on antimicrobial resistance and providing key recommendations.

In 2020, JPIAMR held a series of webinars engaging clinical, research and policy experts to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on antimicrobial resistance. The outcomes of the webinars have been published in two journal articles. The first article, published in the Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance provides a statement on the impact COVID-19 has had on AMR stewardship, surveillance, research and data sharing. The second article, published in the Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene reviews antibiotic use and factors affecting the spread of AMR in the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the paper provides key recommendations targeted towards clinical, research and policy stakeholders for antimicrobial resistance in the pandemic and post-pandemic times.  

JPIAMR would like to thank the participants in the webinars and the authors of the papers for their engagement and efforts for the outcomes.

JPIAMR will hold the final webinar in the AMR research in a post-pandemic world series on September 18.

JPIAMR will hold the final webinar in the AMR research in a post-pandemic world series.

How do we simultaneously manage the acute COVID-19 pandemic and escalating antibiotic resistance

September 18, 14.00-15.00 CEST

Key topics:

-How do we leverage the COVID-19 pandemic to address AMR in different settings?

-What do the clinical and scientific communities need to do to continue to raise awareness of the AMR topic?

Our distinguished panel discusses how to manage and meet the challenges of an ongoing pandemic intertwined with increasing antibiotic resistance.

The webinar will be moderated by Constance Schultsz (University of Amsterdam) and panellists include Charu Kaushic (GloPID-R), Steven Hoffman (Global Strategy Lab), Margo Warren (Access to Medicine Foundation), Ghada Zoubiane (ICARS), Sabiha Essack (University of KwaZulu-Natal), Otto Cars (ReAct) and Ramanan Laxminarayan (CDDEP )

Further details of the webinar and registration can be found at the webinar webpage: How do we simultaneously manage the acute COVID-19 pandemic and escalating antibiotic resistance?

Key takeaways and a video recording of the second live webinar in the JPIAMR webinar series on AMR in a post-pandemic world are now available.

The second live webinar in the JPIAMR webinar series on AMR in a post-pandemic world, Facilitating AMR research in the COVID-19 pandemic, was held on the 25th of June. 

The webinar panel was moderated by Till Bachmann (UK), with the panellists Herman Goossens (BE), Rafael Canton (ES), Adam Roberts (UK), Birgitta Henriques Normark (SE), Neil Clancy (US), George Haringhuizen (NL) and Benedikt Huttner (WHO).

The key takeaways from the webinar are:

• Disruption of research and surveillance of AMR in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic
• There are many knowledge gaps in the current pandemic scenario, such as:
  • Data on bacterial and fungal co-infections and superinfections, including AMR patterns
  • Understanding of the impact of clinical antibiotic use on community and environmental spread of AMR
  • Understanding of the cause of death from autopsy studies: to recognise whether patients die ‘of’ or ‘with’ bacterial infections
• Community use of antibiotics have decreased dramatically during the pandemic
• Rapid diagnostics needed before onset of influenza season
• Urgent need of prioritised sample collection through biobanks

A video recording of the full webinar is now available:

Webinar video: Facilitating AMR research in the COVID-19 pandemic

Other seminars in this series: Antibiotic Use: Have antibiotics been appropriately used in the COVID-19 pandemic? 

More information on the webinar series AMR research in a post pandemic world

Key takeaways and a video recording of the first live webinar in the JPIAMR webinar series on AMR in a post-pandemic world are now available.

The first live webinar in the JPIAMR webinar series on AMR in a post-pandemic world, Have antibiotics been appropriately used in the COVID-19 pandemic?, was held on the 25th of June. 

The webinar panel was moderated by Jesús Rodriguez Baño (ES), with panellists Gian Maria Rossolini (IT), Constance Schultsz (NL), Evelina Tacconelli (IT), Srinivas Murthy (CA), Norio Ohmagari (JP) and Alison Holmes (UK).

A conclusion made from the dicussion is that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the Achilles heel of the fight against antimicrobial resistance since as soon as there is clinical uncertainty antimicrobial usage increases. Other key takeaways from the webinar are:

• Antibiotics were excessively used early in the COVID-19 pandemic
• Redundancy for diagnostics need to be implemented to maintain the capacity to diagnose bacterial and fungal pathogens, even under emergency situations
• Antimicrobial stewardship procedures must remain in place in the COVID-19 pandemic, or any future pandemic
• Collection and analysis of global data on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on AMR is needed, including data from low and middle income-countries (LMIC)
• Clinical and scientific teamwork has been strong during the COVID-19 pandemic

A video recording of the full webinar is now available:

Webinar video: Have antibiotics been appropriately used in the COVID-19 pandemic?

Other seminars in this series: AMR Research: Facilitating AMR research in the COVID-19 pandemic

More information on the webinar series: AMR research in a post pandemic world

On September 3-4 JPIAMR is organising the online workshop Interventions to Reduce the Development and Transmission of AMR.

In 2021, JPIAMR, with the support of the European Commission, will launch a new call for projects in the area of AMR transmission and interventions. In order to refine the scope of this action, JPIAMR in collaboration with the French National Research Agency (ANR) is organising an online workshop specifically focused on this research area.

The main goals of the workshop Interventions to Reduce the Development and Transmission of AMR are:

• To identify the recent progress in the research area of AMR transmission, with a specific focus on the results obtained by the projects funded by JPIAMR in 2016 and 2017 – The Call on Transmission Dynamics and the Call on Prevention and Intervention strategies to Control AMR infections.
• To identify the gaps and needs and the future challenges in the research area of AMR transmission.

The workshop will be organised in two half-day sessions entirely dedicated to scientific discussions and debates. Videos presenting the results obtained by the projects funded by JPIAMR will be available shortly before the workshop.

Read more about the event at the workshop page Interventions to Reduce the Development and Transmission of AMR.

The registration for the event has closed.

JPIAMR is organising a series of webinars to highlight and clarify the importance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research in the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic and future viral pandemics.

JPIAMR is organising a series of live webinars to highlight and clarify the importance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic and future viral pandemics.

In the webinars world-leading researchers and clinicians discuss the prevalence of bacterial co-infections, best practise and appropriate use of antibiotics, and opportunities and challenges for AMR research in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Antibiotic Use: Have antibiotics been appropriately used in the COVID-19 pandemic?
June 25, 13.00-14.00 CEST

Moderator: Jesús Rodriguez Baño (ES)
Panellists: Gian Maria Rossolini (IT), Constance Schultsz (NL), Evelina Tacconelli (IT), Srinivas Murthy (CA), Norio Ohmagari (JP) and Alison Holmes (UK)

AMR Research: Facilitating AMR research in the COVID-19 pandemic
June 25, 14.30-15.30 CEST

Moderator: Till Bachmann (UK)
Panellists: Rafael Canton (ES), Adam Roberts (UK), Birgitta Henriques Normark (SE), Neil Clancy (US), George Haringhuizen (NL) and Benedikt Huttner (WHO)

A third webinar on the theme Societal Preparation: How should society prepare for AMR as a global health threat? will be organised in the autumn of 2020.

To register to the webinars and read more, please visit the webinar registration page.

184 pre-proposals involving 1065 partners were submitted by closing date, totalling a sum of 179.5 M€ in requested funding.

In February 2020 the three Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) on Water, Oceans and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in collaboration with the European Commission launched the Aquatic Pollutants joint transnational call for research and innovation projects on risks posed to human health and the environment by pollutants and pathogens present in the water resources. In the call 26 countries are pooling resources of about 24.2 M€.

Research & innovation proposals were invited to respond to at least one of the themes outlined in the call.  The table below gives an overview of the themes addressed in the project proposals:

Theme	Proposals
Theme 1 – Measuring Environmental behaviour of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), pathogens and antimicrobial resistant bacteria in aquatic ecosystems	77 (Total requested funding of 75.2 M€)
Theme 2 – Evaluating Risk Assessment and Management of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), pathogens and antimicrobial resistant bacteria from aquatic ecosystems (inland, coastal and marine) to human health and environment	41 (Total requested funding of 42.3 M€)
Theme 3 – Taking Actions Strategies to reduce contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), pathogens and antimicrobial resistant bacteria in aquatic ecosystems (inland, coastal and marine)	66 (Total requested funding of 61.9 M€)

Pre-proposals passing the eligibility check and national regulations will be forwarded to the evaluators for a scientific assessment based on two criteria – ‘Excellence’ and ‘Impact’. The best pre-proposals will be invited by the Call Secretariat to proceed to the submission of the full proposal.

To read more about the Eligibility Criteria and evaluation procedures, please download the Aquatic Pollutants Call Announcement here.

JPIAMR invites the entire AMR Research Community to take part in a needs assessment survey to guide the development and implementation of the Digital Platform for the JPIAMR-Virtual Research Institute.

JPIAMR invites the entire AMR Research Community (researchers, trainees, institutions, networks, centres, funders) to take part in a needs assessment survey to guide the development and implementation of the Digital Platform for the JPIAMR-Virtual Research Institute (JPIAMR-VRI).

Aim and ambition of the survey
The aim is to ensure the JPIAMR-VRI Digital Platform meets the needs of the AMR research community and brings value to everyone who will use it. It will help to identify developmental priorities and will bring an opportunity to collect innovative ideas that could become part of the Digital Platform development.

Who should participate?
AMR researchers, members of research networks/projects, students/trainees, research Institute/Universities representatives, representatives of research funding organizations, AMR policy experts, healthcare providers in the field of AMR, AMR data or service provider/developer, private sector representatives interested in AMR Research.

Why should you participate?
By participating in this survey, you are contributing to the building of a JPIAMR-VRI Digital Platform supporting excellence in research on AMR on a global scale with a One Health approach.

The survey closed on May 31, 2020.

We want to thank everyone who participated!