The STATIC project, which won the Junior Chair call for proposals in connect with the Antibiotic Resistance Priority Research Programme (PPR), explores how the watchword “One Health” is implemented in current practices via analysis using a series of tools and adoption of a sociological perspective, at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS)¹, the sociology of the sciences, and the sociology of expertise.

“There is a very long tradition of social science research relating to health and medicine, on epidemic-related issues and even infectious diseases, however with respect to funding for antibiotic resistance, the PPR established in 2020 represents a key structural moment for such research in France” explains Boullier. Much research had been conducted internationally, but until now few French social science teams focused on these issues.

Moving beyond borders

One of the STATIC project’s particularities is to adopt a One Health approach from the very outset, with a view to broadening antimicrobial resistance beyond human and animal health by identifying interdisciplinary points of entry that also include the environment, a long-neglected component.

STATIC’s research extends beyond French situations and initiatives by adopting a global perspective that encompasses practices from other countries, including those with limited resources. It is not a question of comparing situations across various countries, but rather “thinking in terms of circulations, because people, knowledge, goods, bacteria, and medicine circulate. Resistance and pollution do not stop at borders. We must render such phenomena visible”, points out Boullier, “which is something that tools from the social science, and from STS in particular, do very well.”

Since the project’s beginning in 2023, two-thirds of the studies planned have already been completed, led by four countries: France, the United States, India, and Argentina. The researcher and his team are comparing the initial data collected from different sites to determine the most promising avenues and hypotheses , and will then conduct complementary studies examining specific interdisciplinary aspects in greater depth.

Beyond geographic borders, the STATIC project also seeks to move beyond the borders between  different disciplines–and between academic and non-academic sectors–by identifying working methods that can advance the project along the most interdisciplinary lines possible. To illustrate this dynamic, Boullier gives the example of the work completed with doctors and health professionals from a hospital in the Île-de-France region, with whom the studies were designed and built collaboratively. “This forces us to shift views, to develop issues further. The approach can sometimes be experimental, but it works well, and yields results that are scientifically interesting and have high impact for both professionals and public policy.”

Perceiving antibiotic resistance and antibiotics as sources of pollution

Tools and instruments can be used as entry points for studying antibiotic resistance and antibiotics–and the policies seeking to regulate them–doing so with the distinctive aim of “trying to move beyond the infectious paradigm and grasp antibiotic resistance and antibiotics not just as a prescription problem, but as a public health one as well, in addition to a form of pollution. This ecological dimension raises questions closely linked to more general issues, ranging from chemical pollution to climate change.” The devices used to track and measure antibiotic resistance, monitor wastewater, and prevent the dissemination of resistance are so many points of entry for understanding the sidelining of the environment and the centrality of antibiotic resistance.

Perceiving antibiotic resistance as pollution invites us to “zoom out” and move beyond usual conceptions by following the entire production chain for the problem, including the development of standards and tools for managing antibiotic resistance by international committees that are often unfamiliar to users; hospital services that receive patients in therapeutic impasse because they suffer from multidrug-resistant infections; and antibiotic uses in Argentinian feedlots², Louisiana aquaculture farms, and illegal shrimp farms on Indian coasts, which are both victims of and contributors to widespread pollution.

Cross-disciplinary approach

While funding for the project in connection with a Junior Chair allowed Boullier to recruit a team and pursue his research over multiple years, the Antibiotic Resistance PPR also led to meetings between project leaders, notably the conference held by the PPR in November 2025, which facilitated new and extremely stimulating exchanges with a microbiology laboratory specialising in antibiotic resistance.

Experience sharing and interdisciplinary collaborations will also be featured as part of an international conference jointly organised by the STATIC project and the Digital Observatory of Social Dimensions of Antimicrobial Resistance (DOSA) network, which also received support from the Antibiotic Resistance PPR. It will bring together, on 18 and 19 June 2026, specialists in antibiotic resistance from all disciplines who have already worked with the social sciences. “Such cross-cutting moments are especially enriching, and fully embody the dynamics structuring our project”, Boullier concludes.

¹ Research field studying the links between the sciences, technology, and society, and how they mutually influence one another.
² Intensive livestock fattening systems in which animals are fed concentrated foods (grains, fodder) in pens for rapid weight gain before slaughtering.