Category: News and press

EU Commissioner urges countries to join JPIAMR

Anders BjersNews and press

In a speech on June 20, at the Second Ministerial Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance in The Netherlands, Vytenis Andriukaitis, the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, reaffirmed his positive view of JPIAMR by saying: “Collaboration is an essential part of any successful research programme. So, I am particularly proud of the Joint Programming Initiative on antimicrobial resistance, which pools the national research efforts of 27 countries on 5 continents and covers the full One Health spectrum.”

Also, in his speech, Commissioner Andriukaitis urged Ministers present and their countries to join JPIAMR: ”This Initiative grows stronger with every new member, so we need more countries and more investment. The Virtual Research Institute under the Joint Programming Initiative on AMR (JPIAMR) will create a platform to increase coordination, improve visibility, and facilitate knowledge exchange and capacity development as well as the use of scientific evidence.
Ministers, join us in this work!”

JPIAMR at the Second Ministerial Conference on AMR

Anders BjersNews and press

On 19-20 June 2019, JPIAMR will participate in the Second Ministerial Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance, Accelerating Ambitions for Future Health in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. The focus of the conference will be international and multi-sectoral cooperation within the framework of the One Health approach. The program can be seen here.

JPIAMR will take part in a panel discussion in a break-out session entitled Addressing AMR to deliver the SDGs – strengthen knowledge and evidence base and hold an information stand for participants to provide information on the JPIAMR activities.

JPIAMR Regional Workshop on AMR in Argentina

Anders BjersNews and press

JPIAMR Regional Workshop, Experiences and Areas of Interest for Strengthening Antimicrobial Resistance Networks, 5-7 June 2019, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The main focus of this workshop is to follow up the results achieved at the regional workshop held in October 2017 in Santiago de Chile emphasizing the presentation of specific regional initiatives and networks.

Antibiotic Resistance is a pressing problem worldwide and – as it affects both human & animal health and the environment at the same time – the organizations that attended this seminar mostly address it by applying the “ONE HEALTH” approach. Accordingly, experts from each area involved and specialists from a number of South American countries were asked to participate to ensure a broad view of the regional situation and to share challenges, experiences and lessons learned and understand the strengths of the region. The researchers’ viewpoint was also taken into account, without neglecting the work of those who implement health plans and government regulators. Food producers were also considered and enriched the dialogue with the government bodies, supervisory agencies and private sector players.

Main issues discussed

  • To present the AMR status in Argentina and the region based on the “One Health” approach to exchange experiences and detect challenges currently prevailing in the region.
  • To provide a space to generate exchanges between research groups, leading health institutions, regulators, productive sector, consumers, among others.
  • The goals of the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance – JPIAMR – and international financing opportunities will also be presented.

Download the full workshop agenda (pdf, 0,4 MB, opens in a new window)

Download the workshop report (pdf, 1 MB, opens in a new window)

JPIAMR at Global AMR R&D Hub workshop

Anders BjersNews and press

On May 28 in Geneva, JPIAMR participated at the Global AMR R&D Hub workshop on “AMR R&D investments”. The objective was to identify and discuss opportunities for investments and new and innovative financing mechanisms for AMR R&D using a global One Health approach. It aimed at providing recommendations on how the Global AMR R&D Hub can support those activities. JPIAMR’s Laura Marin presented in one of the sessions about AMR investments and the JPIAMR AMR Research Funding Dashboard.

Download the workshop report (pdf, opens in a new window)

Download the workshop program (pdf, opens in a new window)

Swedish Government confirms support of JPIAMR

Anders BjersNews and press

Today the Swedish Government confirmed its broad commitment to act against the rising threat of antimicrobial resistance by supporting research and the JPIAMR. The Government also announced that Sida, the Swedish Development Agency, will provide up to 3.2 M EUR in research funding to the JPIAMR for the years 2020-2022.

The announcement is made in an op-ed in the Swedish weekly newspaper Dagens Medicin by the four ministers: Lena Hallengren, Minister for Health and Social Affairs, Matilda Ernkrans, Minister for Higher Education and Research, Jennie Nilsson, Minister for Rural Affairs and Peter Eriksson, Minister for International Development Cooperation.  The announcement has been made as countries convene for WHO’s World Health Assembly in Geneva today.

The ministers also state that Sweden will take a leading role and are calling on countries, the UN and the EU to increase its engagement to curb AMR. 

New Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda

Anna SundinNews and press

The JPIAMR Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) that is published today presents an overview of recent developments and future needs for AMR research. The SRIA outlines six key priority topics within the AMR field: Therapeutics, Diagnostics, Surveillance Transmission, Environment and Interventions, and has defined a set of research objectives within each priority topic. Together, 27 countries has created the SRIA.

The SRIA highlights many important research needs, including:

  • The need to address AMR with a holistic One Health approach
  • The necessity of including innovation in every aspect of AMR research
  • Increased inclusion of Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs)
  • The need for developments incorporating personalised medicine and artificial intelligence.

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, policy makers, media, educators, health workers and the scientific community to work together on solutions to curb AMR on a global scale.

JPIAMR Networks start-up workshop

Anna SundinNews and press, VRI

The JPIAMR launched two network calls in 2018, (1) Surveillance, and (2) Building the Foundation of the JPIAMR-Virtual Research Institute. Within the surveillance call ten networks were funded. Within the JPIAMR-VRI call, eight networks were funded.

On February 19-20, 2019, the coordinators of the funded Networks within both calls met in the Netherlands for the start-up workshop. The Networks discussed alignment and enhanced interactions. The JPIAMR-VRI Networks also worked on future incorporation into the JPIAMR-VRI, and the surveillance networks were introduced to the JPIAMR-VRI and considered whether further interaction within the JPIAMR-VRI could promote and enhance surveillance actions.

Coordinators discussed how to synergise the Networks both within and between the two Network calls. New connections were formed and this led to future interactions such as:

  • Aligning Network activities by increased communication between coordinators
  • Inclusion of coordinators into other Networks
  • Inclusion of coordinators from other Networks to workshops and meetings of interest from the other Networks

Major Conclusions

Networks spanned all of the JPIAMR pillars and were mostly multidisciplinary.

Networks are geographically diverse, involving representatives from countries on all continents.

The gender balance of the Surveillance Networks was 70% male/30% female and for the VRI networks the balance was 75% male/25% female.

The full workshop report, including summaries of all Networks funded within both calls, can be downloaded here.

AMR One-Health Network meets in Brussels

Anders BjersNews and press

JPIAMRs Laura Marin participates in the meeting on March 12, and presents AMR research-related activities.

The bi-annual EU AMR One-Health Network meetings provides a platform for members to present national action plans/activities, share best practices, discuss policy options and enhance coordination. For the first time, NGOs active in the area are invited, such as: the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME), the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE) and the Council of European Dentists (CED) presents an initiative on One Health in undergraduate education.

JPIAMR launches AMR Research Funding Dashboard

Anna SundinNews and press

An extensive and unique overview of public investments into antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research is available on the newly published JPIAMR Research Funding Dashboard. This dynamic tool inlcudes funding data until the year 2017 from 22 JPIAMR member countries, the European Commission and the Wellcome Trust. The dashboard enables interactive analyses for exploring data on national competitive grants by agency, country, JPIAMR research priority and individual research projects and will serve as a resource for the scientific community, funders, policy makers and others to gain insight into the scale and scope of publicly funded AMR research in member countries of JPIAMR.

The data visualised in the AMR Research Funding Dashboard was collected in the JPIAMR 2017 mapping exercise and is categorised around the JPIAMR Strategic Research Agenda’s (SRA) six priority topics – therapeutics, diagnostics, surveillance, transmission, environment, and interventions.

The mapping recorded a total investment of 1794 M€ in AMR research from a total of 1 939 projects. Of the projects reported, 76.2% of the total investment was recorded for research projects in antibiotic resistance followed by 20.6% in anti-parasitic and 3.2% in anti-fungal resistance research. Analyses on total investments in JPIAMR priority areas indicated that a majority of the grants (57.6%) were dedicated to the priority area therapeutics, followed by diagnostics (13.1%), interventions (11.3%), transmission (7.5%), surveillance (6.7%) and environment (3.8%). Read more in the report on Mapping of AMR research funding (2017).

The JPIAMR 2017 mapping shows that JPIAMR member countries are continuing to increase funding of AMR as a national priority. Although the majority of funding is still directed towards therapeutics as a solution of combatting AMR, increased investments were also observed for the other priority areas. Nevertheless, investments in research on AMR in the environment at national levels are still low. Further national commitments to support funding for detection and prevention of the spread of AMR in a truly “One Health” framework are needed.

Read more on AMR mapping here.

EU Competitive Council Conclusions Calls on Continued Support for JPIs

Anna SundinNews and press

The Competitiveness Council has adopted conclusions on the governance of the European Research Area, and emphasise the relevance of jointly addressing global challenges within the JPIs.

In the conclusions, the Commission is called upon to continue the support for the joint programming process and the JPIs:

“NOTES the 10th anniversary in 2018 of Joint Programming in ERA with ten Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs); TAKES NOTE of the recent achievements of the ERAC dedicated configuration the High Level Group on Joint Programming (GPC) in fostering the development of long-term strategies for JPIs, establishing a monitoring mechanism for national progress in this area; and the setting up of a new framework for evaluating potential new and existing JPIs; REITERATES the continued relevance of jointly addressing global challenges, especially within the JPIs, and CALLS ON the Commission to continue the support for the joint programming process and the JPIs, in line with policy objectives at national and EU level;”

Draft Council conclusions on the “Governance of the European Research Area” , 22 November 2018, page 6.

Please find the full Council conclusions here.