The French National Research Agency, in partnership with 12 European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and UK), 3 associated countries (Israel, Turkey and Switzerland) and Canada, is set to launch a third joint call for proposals through the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR).
The French National Research Agency Preannouncement
An organism develops resistance to a drug either by a gene mutation or by the acquisition of genetic components from another strain (i.e. transmission of resistance). Resistant organisms can multiply in the presence of a drug (i.e. selection of resistance traits) but without transmission, resistance would remain an isolated problem.
To understand the complex biological and environmental interactions that shape the spread of antibiotic resistance, we must identify and characterise the determinants that contribute to the spread of resistance in and between different reservoirs; including humans (sick and healthy people), animals (livestock, companion and wild animals) and the environment (indoor and outdoor).
Responding collectively through research
Research in biology and epidemiology on resistance selection and transmission is therefore crucial for defining preventive measures to address this public threat. The existence and proliferation of antibiotic resistance in bacterial strains with a major impact on public health must be handled using risk analysis approaches based on bacterial pathogens’ genetic reservoirs and the environmental parameters which determine their community, veterinary, and clinical survival.
In this context, the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance aims to coordinate research efforts on these issues at the international level.
A new call for proposals planned for January
This third call for proposals will bring together the following funding organisations: FRS-FNRS and FWO (Belgium), CIHR (Canada), IFD (Denmark), BMBF/DLR (Germany), CSO-MOH (Israël), IT-MOH (Italy), VIAA (Latvia), ZonMw (Netherlands), RCN (Norway), NCN (Poland), FCT (Portugal), ICSIII and MINECO (Spain), SRC and Formas (Sweden), SNCF (Switzerland), Tubitak (Turkey) and MRC (UK).
The initiative sets out to support research aimed at unravelling the dynamics of transmission and selection of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at genetic, bacterial, animal, human, societal, and environmental levels, in order to design and evaluate preventive and intervening measures for controlling resistance.
The primary aim of the call is to combine the resources, infrastructures, and research strengths of multiple countries in order to address transmission of antibiotic resistance following a ‘One Health Approach’.
Designed with multidisciplinary and transnational consortia in mind
The goal is to foster multinational research collaborations to add value to and to build upon the research conducted independently at national level and to work together to improve the control of resistant bacterial infections of clinical and/or veterinary importance only.
We expect that most collaborations to be multidisciplinary with expertise that could include, but are not limited to, bacteriologists (clinical, veterinary, and environmental), chemists, ecologists, mathematicians, informatics and computational modelers, medical practitioners (human and veterinary), etc., where appropriate. Consortia are encouraged to include participants from academia, medical and public health practitioners (both human and veterinary), policy makers, and industry, where appropriate (please note the national/regional regulations).