Author: Anna Sundin

Ten networks have been awarded funding within the JPIAMR 7th transnational call: “2018 Network Call on Surveillance”. Each funded network will receive €50,000 to enhance resource alignment and efforts in the field of AMR surveillance.

The call was launched in May 2018 and supported by ten research-funding organisations from JPIAMR member countries. Sixteen applications were received, involving 364 partners from 63 different countries.

To read more on the funded networks, please click here.

Ten projects have been awarded funding within the JPIAMR 6th transnational call: “Innovations against antibiotic-resistant bacteria: New targets, compounds and tools”. The total funding amount is 12,8 M€.

The call was launched in January 2018 and supported by 16 research-funding organisations from JPIAMR member countries. The primary aim of the call is to combine the resources, infrastructures, and research strengths of multiple countries in order to address the identification and validation of new targets, the development of new therapies, and new tools for new treatments (including new antibiotics).

104 applications were received, involving 468 partners. In total ten transnational projects were granted funding.

To read more on the funded projects, please click here.

Pew Trust has launched a publicly available interactive tool to provide data to help scientists around the world to identify urgently needed new antibiotics.

The pipeline of products in development to treat or prevent bacterial infections is stagnant and cannot meet today’s urgent and growing patient needs. Experts have repeatedly identified information sharing as essential to spurring innovation but have had difficulty benefiting from the insights of others.

Previously, there was no publicly available mechanism for sharing data and expertise across the antibiotic discovery research community. To help address these challenges, Pew created a cloud-based data-sharing tool called “SPARK”. It is a digital platform allowing researchers to share data, ideas, learn from past research and insights to spur the discovery of innovative new antibiotics needed in the battle against the growing global threat of drug-resistant bacteria or superbugs.

The information in SPARK is collected and curated by a team of antibiotic discovery experts and includes chemical and biological data relevant to understanding how molecules can get into Gram-negative bacteria and stay there, a critical factor in designing drugs that can defeat these increasingly hard-to-treat pathogens. SPARK integrates chemical and biological data from published studies as well as previously unpublished data, and provides an opportunity for real-time collaboration among scientists in industry, academia, government, and the nonprofit sector.

This information-sharing platform is of immense importance to JPIAMR and its funded researchers belonging to the antibiotic discovery community. SPARK provides antibiotic discovery data and cutting-edge analytics that will help JPIAMR generate and share new hypotheses and maximize the potential for developing new antibiotics.

To know more about the SPARK platform please read here.

In 2018 the Joint Programming Process (JPP) turns 10 years. This will be celebrated with a gala dinner in Vienna on the 19^th of September, followed by a one-day conference on the 20^th of September: 10 Years Joint Programming – Achievements and the Way Forward

The conference aims to gather the main stakeholders of the JPIs, to share their experiences in developing and implementing challenge-driven R&I programmes and exchange on possible contributions towards Sustainable Development Goals. JPIAMR will be presenting regarding the JPIAMR-Virtual Research Institute.

For more information and draft agenda, please click here.