Author: Anna Sundin

Twelve projects involving 55 partners from 25 different countries have been awarded funding within the JPIAMR 9th transnational call: “Call on Diagnostics and Surveillance 2019”. The total funding amount is 12,1 M€.

For a list and description of all awarded projects, please visit the following page: Projects awarded funding within the 9th JPIAMR Joint Call

Today and during the World Antibiotic Awareness Week (18 – 24 November 2019) JPIAMR will publish videos where some of the awarded projects are presented by the project coordinators. Please visit the JPIAMR YouTube channelfor updates.

The call was launched in December 2018 and supported by 20 research-funding organisations from JPIAMR member countries. The primary aim of the call was to support innovative research projects on new or improved diagnostic and surveillance strategies, tools, technologies and methods. The call also aimed to support research projects that have the potential for impact in areas where the risk and burden of AMR is greatest, such as in LMIC settings in Asia and Africa.

JPIAMR has today published research output and impact from three of the seven projects funded in the first JPIAMR Joint Call 2014, Innovative approaches to address antibacterial resistance. This call was promoted by 14 funding agencies in 12 countries, and had a total budget of 13,8 M€. The projects have resulted in a pending patent for a TB compound, a new approach to interrupting bacteria communications, and innovations to make existing antibiotics remain effective.

Jan-Ingvar Jönsson, Acting Chair JPIAMR Management Board, says:

– Results generated from this call shows how JPIAMR funding can make a difference, and lead to ground-breaking research and innovations.

Read more on each project in the folder and research spotlights below:

• Achievements of 1st Joint Call: Innovative approaches to address antibacterial resistance (pdf 0,2 MB, opens in a new window)
• NACPLI: Non-conventional approaches for peptidoglycan cross-linking inhibition (pdf 0,2 MB, opens in a new window)
• noTBSec: New intervention strategy for tuberculosis by blocking multiple essential targets (pdf 0,2 MB, opens in a new window)
• SENBIOTAR: Sensitising Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms to antibiotic and reducing virulence through novel target inhibition (pdf 0,2 MB, opens in a new window)

In May 2019, JPIAMR published the JPIAMR Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), which emphasises the One Health approach to address AMR and outlines six key priority topics within the AMR field: Therapeutics, Diagnostics, Surveillance, Transmission, Environment and Interventions.

The SRIA provides a framework for the JPIAMR Roadmap of Actions 2019-2024 that will guide future joint transnational actions of the JPIAMR as well as to serve as an information resource for other strategic initiatives to support coordination and synergistic actions. The Roadmap defines future JPIAMR research calls, network calls, strategic workshops and JPIAMR-VRI activities.

Download the JPIAMR Roadmap of Actions 2019-2024 (pdf 4MB, opens in a new window)

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.

• Read more on the JPIAMR SRIA
• Download the JPIAMR SRIA (60 pages)
• Download an overview of JPIAMR SRIA priority topics and research and innovation objectives (2 pages)

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.

JPIAMR is participating in the 12th Berlin Conference on Life Sciences “Novel Antimicrobials and AMR Diagnostics 2019”, 14–15 March 2019, Berlin, Germany.

Two JPIAMR funded projects, will be highlighted within Scientific Session 1 on Academic Innovations: Dr Jean-Claude Sirard will present the project ABIMMUNE, and Dr Robin Michelet will present the project Combinatorials. Both projects were funded within the 2nd JPIAMR Joint Call, Antimicrobial Resistance through the JPIAMR (2015).

Also, Jonathan Pearce, JPIAMR Steering Committee member, will chair as a panelist in the Plenary Session on funding innovation in AMR.

The conference aims to serve as a platform for SME’s, startups, big pharma, academia, investors and governmental institutions to share ideas, discuss support and strategies to bring new antimicrobials and diagnostics to the market. The conference programme includes policy sessions, technology tracks and will be complemented by investor/funder partnering and poster presentations.

Visit the BIOCOM 2019 website here.