Major job opportunity: Director, BARDA Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe). Deadline 7 Dec 2019

Dear All: BARDA’s Division for Research, Innovation and Ventures (DRIVe) was established earlier this year with a mission to develop countermeasures to protect Americans from natural and intentional health security threats. 

BARDA now seeks a permanent director for the Division. The job description for this role is that the Director will:

• Use vision and strategic and scientific leadership to create programs that transform medical countermeasures and how they are made and used.
• Pursue imaginative and innovative research and development projects with the potential to have a significant positive impact on national health care challenges and meet live-saving national security needs.
• Identify promising MCMs and technology investment priorities and advance research and development strategies through public and private partnerships and collaborations with governmental and non-governmental organizations and other funding partners.
• Communicate programmatic priorities, funding opportunities and models, and business practices to diverse audiences that include industry, governmental and non-governmental organizations, funding partners, and the general public.
• Identify new business practices and funding mechanisms to increase efficiency and effectiveness in meeting programmatic objectives.
• Organize, direct, and manage all human, financial, and informational resources to implement a comprehensive strategy that delivers effective high quality programs.

Could this be you? The deadline for applications (https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/515065900) is 7 Dec 2019.

All best wishes, –jr

John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | Expert-in-Residence, Wellcome Trust. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRex_NewAbx. See past newsletters and subscribe for the future: https://13.43.35.2/blog/

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

• 29-30 Nov 2018 (Birmingham, UK): BSAC (British Society Antimicrobial Chemotherapy): Antibiotic Resistance Mechanisms Workshop for Researchers
• 7 Dec 2018 (Boston, MA): BAARN, Boston Area Antimicrobial Resistance Network 2018 symposium, 8:30am to 7pm at The Starr Center (185 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA). This is an excellent networking opportunity, especially for those based in the Boston area. Register here.
• [NEW] 17 Dec 2018 (online): Webinar on TDM of antibiotics, sponsored by the journal Clinical Mass Spectroscopy.
• [NEW] 13 Dec 2018 (online): CDD webinar entitled “New Strategies in Antibiotic Drug Development.” Register here.
• 15 Jan 2018 (London): BSAC’s Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Conference 2019: “An ABC for everyone involved in developing new antimicrobials.” Details here.
• [NEW] 4-5 Feb 2019 (London): Hamied Foundation UK-India Antimicrobial Resistance Meeting 2019. This is a 2-day meeting focused on building research links between the UK and India with the specific aim of jointly addressing the challenge of AMR. Register here.
• 14-15 Mar 2019 (Berlin): BEAM-, CARB-X-, and ND4BB-ENABLE-sponsored Berlin Conference on Novel Antimicrobials and AMR Diagnostics. Details here.
• 21-22 Mar 2019 (Birmingham, UK): BSAC Spring Conference.
• [NEW] 26 Mar 2019 (London, UK): Sponsored by The Economist, a 1-day symposium entitled “Antimicrobial Resistance: Preventing an antibiotic apocalypse.” Register here.
• [NEW] 13-16 Apr 2019 (Amsterdam): Annual ECCMID meeting.
• [NEW] 24-26 Apr 2019 (Boston). Annual SHEA (Soc. for Hospital Epidemiology of America) Spring meeting
• [NEW] 3-6 Jun 2019 (Philadelphia): Annual BIO meeting
• [NEW] 20-24 June 2019 (San Francisco): Annual ASM Microbe meeting.
• [NEW — mark your calendar now!] 3-6 Sep 2019 (Boston). Annual ASM-ESCMID Conference on Antibiotic Development. The Bootcamp series will continue on 3 Sep with the main meeting on 4-6 Sep. Mark your calendar now and check back here for details.
• [NEW] 6-8 Sep 2019 (Bilbao, Spain): 5th ESCMID conference on Vaccines. Check back here for details.
• [NEW] 2-6 Oct 2018 (Washington, DC): IDSA’s annual IDWeek meeting.
• 19-27 Oct 2019 (Annecy, France): International Course on Antibiotics and Resistance (ICARe) – A soup-to-nuts intensive residential training program on all things AMR, especially R&D for new antibiotics. See this link for details.