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The UK’s new 20-year vision and five-year National Action Plan (2019-2024) for containing, controlling and mitigating antimicrobial resistance has been announced.
The plans, which cover health, animals, the environment and the food chain, set out how the UK will continue to make substantial, tangible progress towards preventing the spread and improving treatments for superbugs. UKRI councils have helped to shape the future ‘One Health’ research and innovation priorities, which are a core feature of the vision and five-year plan.
In February the UKRI Cross-Council AMR Initiative and Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chair of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee and member of the Science and Technology Committee (Commons), hosted a parliamentary panel and Q&A. Event attendees heard from a leading panel of AMR researchers reflecting the ‘One Health’ approach to tackling AMR, and discussed research progress, outstanding research priorities and what is needed to enable research and innovation to deliver a step-change in tackling AMR.
New international collaborations to tackle AMR in the environment, prepare for health risks posed by climate change and ensure healthy soils for food security are part of world-leading international research announced on 22 January 2019.
The three NERC-led projects are among 14 research collaborations supported by the £79 million Fund for International Collaboration (FIC) delivered by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI). The fund aims to enhance the UK's excellence in research and innovation through global engagement, forging new bilateral and multilateral research and innovation programmes with global partners. Advanced crop breeding, tackling infectious disease, and clean energy technologies, are among the areas for which the UK will partner with world-leading collaborators to push boundaries and meet 21st century challenges.
Genes associated with antibiotic-resistant superbugs have been discovered in the high Arctic, one of the most remote places on earth, showing the rapid spread and global nature of the resistance problem.
This discovery in such a remote region demonstrates the role that poor sanitation can play in generating antibiotic resistance, according to NERC funded David Graham, a professor of ecosystems engineering at Newcastle University, who led the research team.
The UKRI GCRF Health and Context call is seeking proposals for interdisciplinary research addressing wider contextual factors contributing to the burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). These factors may include social, cultural, historical, and religious beliefs and practices, or wider biological, ecological and environmental factors.
Via the Global Challenges Research Fund, UKRI will support impactful, three-year research projects of value between £1-2 million. This call is being led jointly by the Medical Research Council, Economic & Social Research Council, Arts & Humanities Research Council, Natural Environment Research Council, and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and applications may fall within the remit of any of, or across, these councils. The application deadline is 2 April 2019.
The BMA Foundation for Medical Research is offering a ‘Kathleen Harper’ grant of £65,000 to assist research into antimicrobials. Applicants for both grants must be UK-registered medical practitioners or research scientists working in the UK. Research can be for either research in progress or prospective research. Online applications opened on 1 January and close on 1 March 2019. For more information, please visit: www.bmafoundationmr.org.uk
To better understand the current pre-clinical antibacterial R&D landscape, the World Health Organization (WHO) is undertaking a review of all products in the pre-clinical pipeline to tackle resistant infections. Companies, institutions and individuals are invited to submit data on their products that are in the pre-clinical pipeline targeting the WHO Priority Pathogens List, TB and C. difficile. The deadline for submission is 18 March 2019.
The Medical Research Foundation is currently inviting applications for its 2019 Emerging Leaders Prize which will celebrate outstanding researchers who have made an impact in the field of antibacterial or antifungal resistance and have demonstrated their potential to be a future research leader in the field. Closing date noon Friday 31 May 2019.
Applications now open on the Medical Research Foundation website for the Alexander Fleming Dissemination Awards. These awards provide support for the dissemination of MRC and Medical Research Foundation-funded research results beyond the scientific peer reviewed press, to patients, participants, practitioners and policy makers. Closing date 29 March 2019.
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