AMR.Solutions

Sign-on letter encouraging AMR funding in the FY2026 US budget

Dear All,

If you represent a US-based organization with an interest in AMR, there is an opportunity to sign a letter advocating for AMR-related funding in the FY2026 US Government (USG) budget.

Founded in 2014, IDSA’s S-FAR (Stakeholder Forum on Antimicrobial Resistance) has been steadily coordinating messages to the USG from professional groups with an interest in AMR. 

Today, there is an opportunity to be a part of the process for FY2026 by signing this draft letter. As a signatory, you would be joining the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), American Society of Microbiology (ASM), Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), AdvaMed Dx, BIO, Food and Animal Concerns Trust (FACT), and Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) in supporting a request for FY 2026 funding for domestic and global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) programs.

The letter is similar in structure to a letter sent last year in providing recommendations for funding of AMR-related work across all parts of USG (CDC, ASPR (including BARDA and CARB-X), NIAID, FDA, etc.)

You can sign this year’s letter here: https://forms.gle/2ppBt83LUEvXWU557. Please note that signatories should be US-based organizations. The deadline for signatures is 9 May 2025.

Many thanks to our colleagues at IDSA for organizing this effort! 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.

Current funding opportunities

  • The Trinity Challenge on Community Access to Effective Antibiotics is a £1 million innovation competition that seeks applications to answer the question: “How can data and technology improve stock control and/or reduce the use of substandard and falsified oral antibiotics for community use in low- and middle-income countries?” Applications are open at this website until 24 April 2025.
  • HERA posted a call on 24 Mar 2025 entitled “Development of a Rapid Point-of-care Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Diagnostic Medical Device (HADEA/2025/CPN/0006).” In it, they call for tenders under which they will provide up to 13m EUR for development of a point-of-care diagnostic medical device that can provide antimicrobial susceptibility results on the bacteria or fungi causing an infection in humans, within one hour or less from subject sample collection, and ideally, to also allow for pathogen identification. To apply, you must submit a request to participate by 12 May 2025; selected candidates who met the eligibility criteria will be able to submit a full technical tender. Go to the EU Funding and Tenders Portal to apply; see also the 19 Feb 2025 newsletter for details.
  • ENABLE-2 has continuously open calls for both its Hit-to-Lead program as well as its Hit Identification/Validation incubator. Applicants must be academics and non-profits in Europe due to restrictions from the funders. Applications are evaluated in cycles … see the website for details on current timing for reviews. 
  • CARB-X will have two during 2025 that span two areas: (i) Small molecules for Gram-negatives (the focus is on Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and (ii) Diagnostics for typhoid (the focus is diagnosis of acute infections in 60 minutes or less). See this 26 Feb 2025 newsletter for a discussion of the call and go here for the CARB-X webpage on the call. The first cycle will accept expressions of interest during the window 16-30 April 2025; the 2nd round will be open 1-12 Dec 2025.
  • BARDA’s long-running BAA (Broad Agency Announcement) for medical countermeasures (MCMs) for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases is now BAA-23-100-SOL-00004 and offers support for both antibacterial and antifungal agents (as well as antivirals, antitoxins, diagnostics, and more). Note especially these Areas of Interest: Area 3.1 (MDR Bacteria and Biothreat Pathogens), Area 3.2 (MDR Fungal Infections), and Area 7.2 (Antibiotic Resistance Diagnostics for Priority Bacterial Pathogens). Although prior BAAs used a rolling cycle of 4 deadlines/year, the updated BAA released 26 Sep 2023 has a 5-year application period that ends 25 Sep 2028 and is open to applicants regardless of location: BARDA seeks the best science from anywhere in the world! See also this newsletter for further comments on the BAA and its areas of interest.
  • HERA Invest was launched August 2023 with €100 million to support innovative EU-based SMEs in the early and late phases of clinical trials. Part of the InvestEU program supporting sustainable investment, innovation, and job creation in Europe, HERA Invest is open for application to companies developing medical countermeasures that address one of the following cross-border health threats: (i) Pathogens with pandemic or epidemic potential, (ii) Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats originating from accidental or deliberate release, and (iii) Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Non-dilutive venture loans covering up to 50% of investment costs are available. A closing date is not posted insofar as I can see — applications are accepted on a rolling basis; go here for more details.
  • The AMR Action Fund is open on an ongoing basis to proposals for funding of Phase 2 / Phase 3 antibacterial therapeutics. Per its charter, the fund prioritizes investment in treatments that address a pathogen prioritized by the WHO, the CDC and/or other public health entities that: (i) are novel (e.g., absence of known cross-resistance, novel targets, new chemical classes, or new mechanisms of action); and/or (ii) have significant differentiated clinical utility (e.g., differentiated innovation that provides clinical value versus standard of care to prescribers and patients, such as safety/tolerability, oral formulation, different spectrum of activity); and (iii) reduce patient mortality. It is also expected that such agents would have the potential to strongly address the likely requirements for delinked Pull incentives such as the UK (NHS England) subscription pilot and the PASTEUR Act in the US. Submit queries to contact@amractionfund.com.
  • INCATE (Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe) is an early-stage funding vehicle supporting innovation vs. drug-resistant bacterial infections. The fund provides advice, community, and non-dilutive funding (€10k in Stage I and up to €250k in Stage II) to support early-stage ventures in creating the evidence and building the team needed to get next-level funding. Details and contacts on their website (https://www.incate.net/).
  • These things aren’t sources of funds but would help you develop funding applications
    • 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.
    • Diagnostic developers would find valuable guidance in this 6-part series on in vitro diagnostic (IVD) development. Sponsored by CARB-X, C-CAMP, and FIND, it pulls together real-life insights into a succinct set of tutorials.
  • 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).

John’s Top Recurring Meetings
Virtual meetings are easy to attend, but regular attendance at annual in-person events is the key to building your network and gaining deeper insight. My personal favorites for such in-person meetings are below. Of particular value for developers are BEAM’s AMR Conference and GAMRIC (formerly, the ESCMID-ASM conference series). Hope to see you there!

  • 11-15 April 2025 (Vienna, Austria): ESCMID Global 2025, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Go here for details. 
  • [UPDATED DATES, PRELIMINARY AGENDA] 1-3 Oct 2025 GAMRIC, the Global AMR Innovators Conference (Washington, DC). Formerly the ESCMID-ASM Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR, this meeting series is being continued under the joint sponsorship of CARB-X, ESCMID, BEAM, GARDP, LifeArc, WHO, and AMR.Solutions. You can’t yet register for the 2025 meeting but please mark your calendar now and note that the meeting now runs 1-3 Oct (instead of 30 Sep-2 Oct). The ongoing series is expected to continue that successful format of prior meetings with a (mostly) single-track meeting. You can go here to see the initial details for the 2025 meeting (including a preliminary agenda) and go here to see details of the outstanding 2024 meeting. The abstract submission window will run 28 April to 13 June; an application round for travel grants is expected to run 16 April to 16 May.
  • 19-22 Oct 2025 (Georgia, USA): IDWeek 2025, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Details pending; go here for the general meeting website.
  • 3-4 Mar 2026 (Basel, Switzerland): The 10th AMR Conference. Sponsored by the BEAM Alliance, the 9th AMR Conference has just concluded and it’s again been an excellent meeting! Please mark your calendar for next year. You can’t register yet, but details will appear here! 

  Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

  • 11-15 April 2025 (Vienna, Austria): ESCMID Global 2025, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. See Recurring Meetings list, above.
    • During ESCMID, mark your calendar for the Science Policy forum during which we’ll have follow-up from UNGA 2024  (11 April, 3-8p CEST) and Pipeline Monday (14 April) during which we’ll have a variety of sessions on the antimicrobial pipeline. See also the 13 Feb 2025 newsletter for details and commentary.
    • I’ve also learned of a 14 April (12.15-1.15p, Hall 8) symposium on mechanisms to expand access to antibiotics. To find this one, you have to go the general program and navigate to Hall 8 at 12.15p. Awkward, but a direct link is not possible due the design of the ESCMID webpage.
  • 30 Apr 2025 (virtual, 10-5.15p ET): Presented by Sepsis Alliance, the Sepsis Alliance AMR Conference is 1-day virtual discussion of AMR- and sepsis-focused diagnostics, therapeutics, and advocacy. Go here for details and to register.
  • 30 June – 1 July (in person and virtual, Grand Hyatt, Washington DC): BARDA Industry Days 2025 (BID2025) with the theme “Enhancing Health Security With a Sustainable Future.” This is a major annual opportunity to interact with BARDA and ASPR teams and thereby identify potential areas of collaboration in the field of MCM (medical countermeasure) research and development. Go here for details.
  • 19-22 Oct 2025 (Georgia, USA): IDWeek 2025, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society 
  • 11-15 April 2025 (Vienna, Austria): ESCMID Global 2025. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
  • 30 June-1 July 2025 (virtual and in Washington, DC): BID2025: BARDA Industry Days — Enhancing Health Security With a Sustainable Future has been cancelled. The  website hints at the idea of rescheduling, but no details are given.
  • 1-3 Oct 2025 GAMRIC, the Global AMR Innovators Conference (Washington, DC; formerly the ESCMID-ASM Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR). See list of Top Recurring meetings, above..
  • 19-22 Oct 2025 (Georgia, USA): IDWeek 2025. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
  • 11-19 Oct 2025 (Annecy, France, residential in-person program): ICARe (Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance) … and 2025 will be the 9th year for this program. Patrice Courvalin orchestrates content with the support of an all-star scientific committee and faculty. The resulting soup-to-nuts training covers all aspects of antimicrobials, is very intense, and routinely gets rave reviews! Seating is limited, so mark your calendars now if you are interested. Applications should open ~March 2025 — go here for more details.
  • 3-4 Mar 2026 (Basel, Switzerland): The 10th AMR Conference sponsored by the BEAM Alliance. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
  • 8-13 Mar 2026 (Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco, Italy): 2026 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) entitled “Antibacterials of Tomorrow to Combat the Global Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance.” A Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will be held the weekend before (7-8 Mar) for young doctoral and post-doctoral researchers. Space for the GRS and the GRC is limited; for details and to apply, go here for the GRC and here for the GRS.

Self-paced courses, online training materials, and other reference materials:

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