Dear All,
What a wild day … it feels like the flood gates have opened! I am still smiling about the amazing BARDA announcement of 10 further years of funding for an Antibacterial Accelerator!
In parallel, six (6!) contractor/job openings have popped onto my radar! Three are with WHO and three are with the recently created Danish ICARS project. As all have short deadlines (variously, 19-31 May), I am pushing them out quickly with just short summaries of each. Note that the roles with ICARS include interesting calls for training in veterinary medicine and in behavioral sciences!
See details below my signature … perhaps one of them is for you!
All best wishes, –jr
John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | Operating Partner, Advent Life Sciences. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRex_NewAbx. See past newsletters and subscribe for the future: https://amr.solutions/blog/. All opinions are my own.
Role #1 and Role #2 (WHO):
- The WHO is initiating the development of a global One Health priority research agenda with an overall aim to fill major gaps in knowledge on antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
- The Department of Global Coordination and Partnership on AMR (GCP) undertakes this work as part of the implementation of the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (GAP) and the constitutional mandate of the WHO to promote health research and promote co-operation among scientific and professional groups that contribute to the advancement of public health.
- The objective of the One Health priority research agenda is to direct activities and funding towards research addressing evidence gaps that may impact AMR in a public health context that exist between two or more One Health sectors. In addition, the project aims at catalyzing increased scientific interest and investment in the One Health AMR research that is relevant to human health. The findings will be published and disseminated to relevant stakeholders including research funders, academia and implementers.
- For this purpose, the WHO has announced two Requests for Proposal seeking suitable contractor(s) to:
- Support an open call process on the WHO website to ensure broad global input of a range of stakeholders, including the collection and analysis of research/evidence gaps from global audience and support the development of the research methodology materials (Delphi Technique)
- HQ/AMR/GCP/2021/3: https://www.ungm.org/Public/Notice/128516
- Conduct three systematic literature reviews and draft publication of the finding.
- HQ/AMR/GCP/2021/4: https://www.ungm.org/Public/Notice/128515
- Deadline for both Requests for Proposal – 19 May 2021
- Contact: T. Jorgensen antibacterialpipeline@who.int
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Role #3 (WHO)
The WHO has a Request for Proposal for an Individual Consultancy to support the meetings of the Global Leaders Group on AMR. The suitable candidate will provide administrative and technical support to the Tripartite Joint Secretariat including:
- Coordinating organisation of the formal GLG meetings and other related technical meetings, including logistics, based on the agreed meeting format (virtual, in-person or hybrid).
- Drafting meeting documentation, such as letters, briefing notes, scripts, etc.
- Tracking, compiling and documenting technical and briefing materials.
- Coordinating the follow up on the implementation of recommendations and decisions of the GLG.
- Supporting communication and flow of information within the Tripartite Joint Secretariat on the GLG related issues, including review and analysis of GLG- and AMR-related materials and preparation of summary reports.
- Preparing materials for publishing on the GLG website and maintain the shared repository of the meeting documents on the SharePoint site.
- HQ/AMR/GCP/2021/5: https://www.ungm.org/Public/Notice/128712
- Deadline for applying – 25 May 2021
- Contact: Ms R. Edma – edmar@who.int
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Roles #4-#6 at the International Centre for AMR Solutions (ICARS, Copenhagen)
The International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions (ICARS) was founded by the Danish government in 2018 and is focused on developing solutions to mitigate antimicrobial resistance in low- and middle-income countries. ICARS is expanding its team with three new scientific positions:
- Overview of all 3 roles: https://icars-global.org/about-icars/meet-the-team/#jobs
- Scientific Advisor on Antimicrobial Resistance (link)
- Scientific Advisor with a background in veterinary medicine (link)
- Scientific Advisor with a background in behavioural sciences (link)
- The successful candidates will work together with other members of the ICARS team to assist in the development of ICARS’ portfolio of demonstration projects with LMICs focusing on mitigating AMR in a One Health perspective.
- The scientific advisors will be the ICARS’ primary contact point for LMICs for co-developing Intervention and Implementation Research projects, providing expert scientific advice and facilitating project development and implementation in close collaboration with LMIC project coordinators and other stakeholders.
- The posts will be based in Copenhagen but will be expected to travel as necessary (covid permitting) for the purposes of visiting partner LMICs, and to nurture, build and maintain networks of relationships with researchers, advisors and consultants for the purpose of delivering ICARS’ priorities.
- For more information about ICARS – https://icars-global.org/
- Deadline for all roles – 31 May 2021
- Contact – Robert Leo Skov (Science Director), +45 2072 3291, rsk@icars-global.org
Current funding opportunities (most current list is here):
- NIAID’s 2021 Broad Agency Announcement for product development is entitled “Development of Medical Countermeasures for Biothreat Agents, Antimicrobial-Resistant Infections an Emerging Infectious Diseases” and is now live with a 24 May 2021 deadline. Research areas include Vaccines, Therapeutics, and Sequencing-Based Diagnostics.
- GNA NOW (part of the IMI AMR Accelerator) has an open call to identify a novel mechanism antibacterial to add to its portfolio. The selected project would receive resources equivalent up to several million € (to be defined according to project needs); see also this 11 May 2021 newsletter for details. Expressions of interest are due by 18 June 2021.
- CARB-X recently announced that their existing resources will be reserved to fund their existing portfolio (more than 80 total awards, and counting, as they include contracting from prior rounds). New rounds from CARB-X will occur only after new funding is obtained in 2021.
- It’s not a funder, but AiCuris’ AiCubator offers incubator support to very early stage projects. Read more about it here.
- The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes the global clinical development pipeline, incentives for AMR R&D, and investors/investments in AMR R&D.
- In addition to the lists provided by the Global AMR R&D Hub, you might also be interested in my most current lists of R&D incentives (link) and priority pathogens (link).
Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community (most current list is here):
- 13 May 2021 (virtual, 9.30-11.00a EST): CDC-sponsored webinar entitled “AMR in a Changed World: Building Resilient Systems for Today and Tomorrow.” Moderated by CDC’s Michael Craig, an international panel will discuss “where we go from here to address AMR after the COVID-19 pandemic.” Go here to register.
- 18-21 May 2021 (Albuquerque, New Mexico): Biannual meeting of the MSGERC (Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium). Save-the-date announcement is here, details to follow.
- 24-29 May 2021 (virtual and in Geneva): ESPID 2021, the 39th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases. Save-the-date announcement is here, details to follow.
- 27 May 2021 (virtual, 9.30a-11.00 CEST): GARDP-sponsored webinar entitled “New clinical trial designs for evaluation of antimicrobial agents.” Go here to register.
- 7-9 Jun 2021 (virtual, various times): 5th International Conference on Responsible Use of Antibiotics in Animals. This conference runs only every few years … the 4th instance was in 2016. Go here to register.
- 20-24 Jun 2021 (Toronto): International Symposium on Pneumococci and Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD-12). Go here for details.
- 20-24 Jun 2021 (virtual, various times): World Microbe Forum sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS). Go here for more details and to register.
- 27 Jun-2 Jul 2021 (Ventura, CA): Gordon Research Conference entitled “Antimicrobial Peptides”. Go here for details, go here for the linked 26-27 Jun Gordon Research Seminar that precedes it.
- 9-12 Jul 2021 (virtual): Annual ECCMID meeting (#31)
- 26 Jul-30 Jul 2021 (online): Small World Initiative Instructor Training Workshop – training for undergraduate professors in the wet lab techniques, parallel curricula, & pedagogical instruction to engage students in the hunt to find new antibiotic-producing soil microbes. Go here to register.
- 14-29 Aug 2021 (Marine Biology Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA): Residential course entitled “Molecular Mycology: Current Approaches to Fungal Pathogenesis.” This 2-week intensive training program has run annually for many years and gets outstanding reviews. Go here for details.
- 8-11 Oct 2021 (Aberdeen, Scotland): 10th Trends in Medical Mycology. Go here for details.
- 11-15 Oct 2021 (physical, somewhere in the UK): UK-focused Innovation Mission sponsored by Innovate UK in collaboration with AMR Insights and Oxford innovation. This free event seeks to connect AMR-focused start-ups, SMEs and Multinationals, Academia, Research Institutes, Regional Development Companies and other interested stakeholders in the UK, Europe and other parts of the world. Go here for more details.
- 16-24 Oct 2021 (Annecy, France): Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance (ICARe). This is a soup-to-nuts residential course on antibiotics, antibiotic resistance, and antibiotic R&D. The course is very intense, very detailed, and gets rave reviews. Registration is here and is limited to 40 students. Bonus feature: For obvious reasons, the course didn’t happen in 2020! But as a celebration of the course’s 5th year, a webinar version was held on 29 Oct 2020: go here to stream it.
- 25-28 Oct 2021 (Stellenbosch, South Africa): The University of Cape Town’s H3D Research Centre will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a symposium covering the Centre’s research on Malaria, TB, Neglected Tropical Diseases, and AMR. Go here to register.
- 6-11 Mar 2022 (Il Ciocco, Tuscany): Gordon Research Conference entitled “New Antibacterial Discovery and Development”. Go here for details, go here for the linked 5-6 Mar Gordon Research Seminar that precedes it.
