TDR and WHO regional offices for Africa, the Americas and South-East Asia are pleased to announce the results of the 2019-2020 call for applications for the Small Grants Scheme for Implementation Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). Thirteen projects from seven countries have been selected for funding and will complement ongoing Structured Operational Research and Training IniTiative (SORT IT) activities on AMR.
The Small Grants Scheme is a joint initiative of TDR and WHO regional offices, which aims to strengthen the research capacity of individuals and institutions in countries. The SORT IT activities on AMR are funded by the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Global Health Research.
“We are awarding these additional grants for AMR research to add to current activities in selected countries that will help generate new knowledge, solutions and implementation strategies,” said Dr Garry Aslanyan, who manages TDR’s Small Grants Scheme. In addition, the selected projects encourage intersectoral dialogue and the One Health approach.
“We are pleased that the work we are supporting to tackle AMR is catalyzing engagement of various health-related sectors to use innovative research to help countries achieve tangible impact,” said Dr Val Snewin of the UK Department of Health and Social Care, which provides funding for SORT IT activities on AMR through the NIHR Global Health Research.
Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health challenge. AMR makes standard treatments ineffective and allows infections to persist and spread.
“As the drivers of antimicrobial resistance lie in human, animal and plant health; food and feed production; and the environment, there is a need for robust evidence to guide the implementation of effective interventions across the One Health spectrum,” said Dr Haileyesus Getahun, Director of WHO’s Department of Global Coordination and Partnership on Antimicrobial Resistance. “These new research projects, combined with the SORT IT initiative, will be a valuable contribution to this evidence generation.”
The scope of this call was to cover a spectrum of studies that utilize operational or implementation research methodology, focusing on a One Health approach including human, animal and/or environmental health as one of the core principles of an effective response against the AMR problem.
Grants for the Europe region were announced in November.
The selected proposals are:
Africa region
| Country | Principal Investigator / Lead institution | Project title |
| Ghana | Mavis Puopelle Dakorah / Cape Coast Teaching Hospital | Proposal for the development of an evidence-based antibiotics protocol for the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital using repeated point prevalence surveys and cumulative antibiogram data |
| Sierra Leone | Sulaiman Lakoh / College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, University of Sierra Leone | Surveillance of health care-associated infections and antibiotic resistance in urban and rural secondary hospitals in Sierra Leone |
| Uganda | Gabriel Tumwine / Makerere University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity | Antibiotic resistance: Knowledge of people and AMR profile in Staphylococcus aureus population at the livestock-human-wildlife interface in Lake Mburo National Park, Uganda |
| Uganda | Paul E. Okello / Joint Clinical Research Centre | One Health approach to identify local drivers of antimicrobial drug resistance in peri-urban Kampala, Uganda |
| Uganda | Eric Kitutu Freddy / Makerere University Pharmacy Department, Makerere University College of Health Science | Antimicrobial consumption by ATC/DDD methodology for human and veterinary antimicrobials for the year 2018/2019 using medicine imports and local manufacture data at the Uganda National Drug Authority |
| Uganda | Charles Drago Kato / Makerere University | Bacteriophage-based control of transmission and emergency of carbapenem resistant pathotypes of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae in Uganda. |
Americas region
| Country | Principal Investigator / Lead institution | Project title |
| Colombia | Juan Carlos Rivillas Garcia / Asociacion Profamilia | Medición de desigualdades sociales en la resistencia antimicrobiana de la Neisseria Gonorrhoeae en Colombia: un enfoque de investigación mixta |
| Colombia | Soraya Sacedo Mendoza / Universidad Simón Bolívar | Programa para la optimization del uso de antibioticos en instituciones prestadoras de servicios de salud del distrito de Barranquilla, Colombia |
| Ecuador | Christian Vinicio Vinueza Burgos / Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Central del Ecuador | Estudio de la resistencia a fosfomicina y genes plasmídicos fos en aislados de E. coli resistentes a cefalosporinas de tercera generación en la cadena productiva de pollos de engorde y humanos en el Distrito Metropolitano de Quito, Ecuador |
South-East Asia region
| Country | Principal Investigator / Lead institution | Project title |
| Myanmar | Ei Ei Swe / Department of Medical Research, Ministry of Health and Sports Myanmar | Antimicrobial resistance: Exploring challenges to inform policy for evidence-based actions in Myanmar |
| Nepal | Pushkar Pal / Agriculture and Forestry University | Antimicrobial resistance patterns in poultry production system in Nepal: A pilot study |
| Nepal | Sony Shakya Shrestha / Dhulikhel Hospital, Kathmandu University | A multisectoral approach to investigate a burden of antimicrobial resistance in a sub-urban area of Nepal - A feasibility study |
| Nepal | Ajit Kumar Karna / Center for Health and Disease Studies-Nepal | Operational One Health research to identify opportunities and barriers for implementing antimicrobial stewardship in dairy farming of Nepal |
For more information, please contact Dr Garry Aslanyan.