Call for transnational networks working to improve surveillance within the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR)

The French National Research Agency, in partnership with 9 countries (Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom) is launching a seventh joint call for proposals through the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR). This initiative aims to promote international research on antimicrobial resistance.

Funding will be awarded for a maximum of 12 months.

The overarching goal of this priority topic is to standardise, improve and extend surveillance systems on antibiotic use and on AMR (in humans, animals, food, and the larger environment) with the final aim to foster a global standardised and comprehensive surveillance system of the spread for AMR. Surveillance is a pre-requisite for assessing the success of AMR stewardship measures, infection prevention and control, and the effectiveness of new therapeutic and diagnostic options.

The intent of the call is to assemble motivated groups of leading experts and establish networks in order to enhance resource alignment and maximize existing and future efforts to combat AMR. This can be done by pushing forward the conceptualisation of ideas in order to provide white papers, prospective views, guidelines and/or best practices/roadmaps/systematic reviews and frameworks to identify key questions to be addressed or identify potential solutions to overcome barriers to AMR research studies.

For more information please refer to the call text;

Focal areas of the networks

Based on the priority topics identified in the JPIAMR Strategic Research Agenda, applicants are invited to tackle one or more of the suggested focal areas below. Networks should be built with emphasise on what is needed at a National and International level to address AMR. If relevant, Lower Middle Income Countries (LMIC) aspects should be addressed in all seven focal areas. If not relevant, please explain.

• Impact of surveillance on prevention, intervention, clinical practice, infection control, treatment and patient management
   
  
• Surveillance of AMR in the healthy population: Risk factors; risk groups (e.g. migrants, travelers), reservoirs, and monitoring systems
   
• Surveillance of non-human AMR reservoirs: Strategies, models, and technologies for tracing AMR in food, animals and the environment
   
• Improvement and standardisation of methods
   
• Quality assurance, curation and sharing data
   
• Surveillance technology and tools: Optimization of methods for outbreaks, rapidly emerging clones, resource-poor settings and global coverage
   
• Social networks, big data and deep learning for AMR surveillance and prevention

General conditions for application

Applicants must adhere to the specific regulations of the national funding organisations.

The funded networks must bring together different partners from relevant disciplines, policy areas and sectors to enhance resources to monitor the threat of AMR and guide public health policy. The network should develop national and international collaborations and partnerships that involve representatives from as many JPIAMR countries as possible as well as countries outside JPIAMR and partners from LMIC is encouraged.

For an application to be eligible

• Networks must be led by a coordinator from an eligible institution within one of the call participating countries (in accordance with the terms and conditions of the relevant national funding organisations, see Annex A). This individual should have the energy and commitment to drive collaboration and output-directed process.
• Network coordinators must be internationally recognised experts with a competitive track record in AMR research and policy.
• Only transnational networks will be funded. To qualify for funding, each network must involve in total at least fifteen (15) partners from ten (10) different countries, of which and at least three (3) must be from JPIAMR countries contributing with funding to this call.
• Networks are encouraged to include at least one partner from a Lower middle income country (LMIC).
  • Network contributors are allowed to be members of more than one network (1) however, individuals cannot act as network coordinator for more than one (1) proposal.
  • Members can be added to the network as the network develops further and if additional experts and knowledge would benefit the output success.
  • Each funding agency would potentially fund any high quality network, involving eligible participants, on any topic.
  • Networks may combine two or more topics into one application
• In the course of the JPIAMR peer review process, merging of related networks applying on similar and complimentary topics may be suggested. Negotiations regarding merging of networks will involve network coordinators and their respective national funding partners. The potential of merging networks will be decided by the Call Steering Group (CSG).