Antibiotics have saved millions of lives throughout the many decades they have been in use as a common drug to treat infection. However, antibiotic resistance is now a global health security challenge and it is predicted that by 2050 up to 10 million human lives could be lost yearly due to antibiotic resistant infections. The Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance, JPIAMR is a global organisation comprised of 29 nations that coordinate national research funding and support collaborative action for filling knowledge gaps on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) with a One Health perspective. The critical mass of JPIAMR Member States (MS) jointly address AMR, promoting transnational cooperation to combine resources, infrastructures and research strengths. JPIAMR EXEDRA is the second Coordination Support Action (CSA) for the JPIAMR and builds on the work of the first CSA (JPIAMR), which ended February 2016. EXEDRA has provided a strong support structure for the JPIAMR during the implementation and expansion phase by maintaining a continuity between the objectives, tasks and Work Packages of EXEDRA and JPIAMR.
By the end of the EXEDRA project the JPIAMR has established:
• an organisation structure comprised of various boards and a secretariat to support JPIAMR activities
• a common work platform for the 29 MS
• a global network of AMR research experts led by a scientific advisory board
• a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda
• a respected reputation as a global AMR funding organisation
The objectives of EXEDRA were to:
• Strengthen the joint effort to combat the spread of AMR by expansion of the JPIAMR membership or partnership to European and global members.
• Develop a strategic plan for a long-term sustainable management structure of the JPIAMR, to support an increased collaboration between member states (MS), the scientific community, and stakeholders in meeting the risk of losing effective treatment of infections due to increased resistance to antimicrobial drugs.
• Increase alignment of MS national inter-sectorial policies on prevention and treatment of infections, the support for innovation and development of new antibiotics or alternatives thereof and new diagnostics, and of increased and improved surveillance and reporting of the use of antibiotics, presence and spread of resistant microbes or resistant genes in humans, animals, food and the environment.
• Increase joint support for the use and maintenance of critical European and global research infrastructures of relevance to the AMR scientific community. To mobilise financial support in order to collect, characterise, increase awareness of, and to provide access to samples and data from publicly funded projects. To lower or remove legal barriers to share samples and data by identifying paths of possible alignment of national rules and regulations.
• Develop a JPIAMR Virtual Research Institute (JPIAMR-VRI), a dynamic network of AMR research facilities that will provide a close contact between the JPIAMR and the scientific community, and will be a platform for scientific interaction between MS to build research capacity in the area of AMR.
• Support the alignment of JPIAMR MS national AMR policies, programmes and resources in order to facilitate cooperation, efficiency of scale, and dissemination of best practices and knowledge.
• Increase the impact of the JPIAMR by extending the SRA into innovation through dialogue with industry.
• Use communication to raise awareness of the JPIAMR effort within scientific community, and mobilise researchers.
