Germany

National AMR research program
National action plans
MB representatives

Germany is represented in JPIAMR by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Containing antimicrobial resistance requires a comprehensive examination of several relevant sectors, since antimicrobial resistance occurs both in the field of human medicine and in veterinary medicine. Animals and people are often infected by the same pathogens, treated with the same antibiotics and thus have a mutual influence on the problems of resistance. Antibiotics can pass via sewage treatment plants into the water or via sewage sludge into the soil. The problem of the development of resistance can therefore only be tackled with a cross-sectoral approach. Germany has developed and implemented its national Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy (DART) as early as 2008 and the Strategy has been continuously updated ever since. Strengthening and supporting research and innovation are an integral part of the German strategy. This includes both national efforts and better and coordinated cooperation at the European and wider international level. The IMAG AMR (national mirror group) brings together the ministries involved in DART 2030. It is responsible for the overall coordination, adaptation and expansion of the national AMR strategy.

National AMR research program and activities

AMR Research program

  • With the “German One Health Initiative” (GOHI), the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI), the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) and the Robert Koch-Institute (RKI) founded a platform for networking of the four sectoral research institutions. In the first round, funding was provided for several PhD theses dealing with data on antimicrobial resistance in humans and animals and with the appearance of resistance in specific pathogens. (2017)
  • BMBF: “National research network on zoonotic infectious diseases”, 2017. The goal is to develop the One Health approach further and to build up a closer connection between research and the healthcare sector, so that the results can be used more quickly in the public health services in human and veterinary medicine. This program will end in 2022.
  • National Drug Initiative: In April 2017, the German Bundestag adopted the National Drug Initiative to safeguard and strengthen R&D on anti-infectives. The aim of the initiative is to support drug development, including the field of anti-infectives and antibiotic resistance, and to strengthen cooperation between science and industry.
  • National Research Platform for Zoonoses and Research Network: The platform was established to strengthen the coordination and networking of cooperation within research activities on zoonotic infectious diseases, i.e. diseases transmissible between humans and animals. The platform is supported by BMBF, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and Federal Ministry of Defence (BMVg) as well as by the departmental research institutions of Federal Ministry of Health, BMEL and BMVg.

National AMR research calls

  • Strictly national calls addressing exclusively or predominately AMR issues
    • “Junior research groups in infection research”. The aim of the initiative is to promote the career path of qualified young scientists in clinical and application-oriented infection research and to strengthen the research landscape in the area of infection research. Six research groups investigate research topics related to AMR, 2020 and 2022
  • Strictly national calls allowing for AMR Research under a wider thematic umbrella
    • BMBF: “Drug development based on natural substances for the control of infectious diseases”, 2019
  • Bi-/ multinational calls
    • BMBF: “Sino-German Call for Projects on Antimicrobial Resistance”, 2020, projects start end of 2022
    • BMBF: “French-German Call for Projects on Antimicrobial Resistance”, 2020 and 2022
    • BMBF: “Indo-German Call for Projects on Antimicrobial Resistance”, 2019
    • BMBF: “Research Networks for Health Innovations in Sub-Saharan Africa”, 2016 and 2023

Activities on AMR actions at national level

  • National programs/platforms:
    • A nationally (and regionally) funded One Health research institute has been established in 2022. The Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH) will address the ongoing threat posed by the emergence of novel pathogens as well as the adaptation of known pathogens, including their antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to already approved agents.
  • National contributions to international AMR (related) research programs and activities:
    • Since 2021 BMBF has supported two German institutions to contribute to “Academia and industry united innovation and treatment for tuberculosis (UNITE4TB)“, an initiative funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) with around € 25M. UNITE4TB is a Public Private Partnership and aims to accelerate the clinical evaluation of existing and novel drug combinations and to build a global clinical trials network equipped to implement phase 2 trials.
    • Since 2019 BMBF has participated in the Combating Antibiotic Resistant Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) initiative. The BMBF supports this global partnership with € 78 million.
    • Between 2018 and 2027, BMBF invests € 111.7 million in business activities of the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP).
    • BMBF has taken the lead in setting up the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Development Hub (Global AMR R&D Hub)) and in financing its secretariat located in Berlin with overall € 5.4 million (since 2018). The Hub serves as an international overarching forum for information and alignment of R&D priorities, funding instruments and incentive mechanism. The board of members is chaired by Norway and Canada.
    • BMBF is a founding member (2003) of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), which supports joint European-African research consortia developing drugs, vaccines and therapeutics also for bacterial infections. BMBF has supported EDCTP with financial and in-kind contributions ever since and will also support the Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking that was established in 2021.

National action plans

The new National AMR Strategy was adopted by the Federal Cabinet in April 2023. It aims to build on the achievements of the previous strategy, DART 2020. The goals and measures to be achieved in the fight against antibiotic resistance at the national level and in international cooperation are presented in six fields of action. The focus is on prevention, on further strengthening the appropriate use of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine, and on closer involvement of the environmental sector in the fight against AMR. In the human sector, particular attention will be paid to sepsis, the most serious form of infection. The future AMR strategy should also take into account outpatient medical care as it has been idetfied as a relavant field. In this context, the future development of an outpatient antibiotic stewardship strategy that is oriented towards the special features and needs of general practitioner and paediatric primary care and paediatric primary care, outpatient specialist care and dental care will play an essential role.

Management Board representatives

  • Henning Gädeke, Federal Ministry of Education and Research
  • Barbara Junker, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)