The Coordination and Support Action (CSA) DESIGN One Health AntiMicrobial Resistance (DESIGN OH AMR) has been created in response to the HORIZON-HLTH-2021-DISEASE-04-05 call: “A roadmap towards the creation of the European partnership on One Health antimicrobial resistance (OH AMR).” Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is recognised as major threat to the health of citizens and societies at the highest political levels, and undermines the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The WHO “Global Action Plan on AMR” and the UN Interagency Coordination Group have stressed that AMR is a global challenge requiring a global response. The G7 and G20 also endorse the need for global collaboration. The EU One Health Action Plan against AMR highlights the need for European cooperation to employ a One Health (OH) approach to tackle AMR in bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites, which present major hazards to human, animal, plant and environmental health. DESIGN OH AMR aims to coordinate a One Health response by linking key actors of the AMR research and innovation landscape, supporting an interdisciplinary approach to overcome fragmentation. Thus, it contributes to destination 3 of the European Commission Health Programme in Horizon Europe “Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden.”
DESIGN OH AMR will lay the foundation for the future OH AMR partnership by building on the experience and outcomes of the already existing Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR). A core action will be the broadening of the globally recognised JPIAMR Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) to include a cohesive spectrum of pathogens and scientific objectives. This will be done in collaboration with key international AMR initiatives and stakeholders and synchronised with other relevant European partnerships to optimise coordination and avoid overlaps.
The major objectives of DESIGN OH AMR have been to:
1. Mobilise and link key AMR stakeholders, encompassing the human, veterinary, agricultural and environmental disciplines and including a broad spectrum of pathogens, bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses, through a cross-cutting, interdisciplinary one health approach. The project will provide a framework to close the current knowledge gaps and break existing silos in the AMR research landscape, facilitating the integration of national and international scientific and policy communities with industry and the civic society.
2. Perform the preparatory groundwork for the candidate European partnership on OH AMR by engaging with JPIAMR members and other research funders, industry, policy makers, and already existing European partnerships and authorities to strengthen Europe’s leading role in combatting AMR through linkage with European and international initiatives such as ICARS, PENTA, EPHA and others.
3. Build the framework for the candidate OH AMR partnership by developing an updated SRIA to inform the research and innovation needs for the candidate European Partnership OHAMR, the OHAMR partnership SMART objectives, the OHAMR Roadmap of Actions, the OHAMR Work Programme for 2024-2025 and the OHAMR monitoring and evaluation framework.
4. Actively engage with and align objectives, strategies and actions with academics, innovators, end-users, researchers, public health authorities and citizens, civil societies, patients, international organisations and AMR initiatives to ensure the implementation of the European One Health AMR strategy and its contribution to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
