The 3rd AMR Accelerator cross-project meeting hosted by COMBINE was held as an in-person event in Basel, Switzerland
A total of nine projects dedicated to the research and development of new medicines to treat or prevent resistant bacterial infections, united under the IMI AMR Accelerator programme, had their first gathering in-person after a long time of online-only interactions. AMR Accelerator members met up in Basel, Switzerland, to interconnect and exchange in a day-long event of workshops, project pitches, and individual project meetings.
The AMR Accelerator programme was launched by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), now the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), in the years 2019 – 2021. The programme comprises nine projects: AB-Direct, COMBINE, ERA4TB, GNA NOW, RespiriNTM, RespiriTB, TRIC-TB, UNITE4TB and PrIMAVeRA.
The COMBINE project provides the AMR Accelerator with coordination, data management and communication support. An important part of COMBINE’s mission is to bring the projects together, virtually or in-person, on a regular basis.
Partners from the various project consortia (close to 50 individuals) came together at the cross-project meeting that took place as a whole-day event on April 6, 2022 in Basel, Switzerland. The day was structured into three parts:
- Individual and dual project meetings – UNITE4TB, ERA4TB and COMBINE consortia met in-person
- Project pitches – Progression of the pipeline, challenges, and achievements
- Workshops – Choice of cross-cutting topics
COMBINE organised three workshops: Coordination, data management and communication support, Combination therapies for AMR infections, and Using knowledge tools in antibiotic drug discovery. Some key takeaways of the workshops were:
- Coordination and communication support: work to improve cross-project interactions (e.g. cross-project workshops) but also improve communication with respect to external outreach
- Combination therapies for AMR infections: work to improve integration of all available data – in vitro, in vivo, and clinical – for conventional pathogens to derive learnings and better understand new drugs
- Using knowledge tools in antibiotic drug discovery: outline the resources available to implement FAIR data working methods and help data owners link their results to new and existing data resources to get more value from their data
The day ended with a networking hour to give participants the chance to strengthen the personal connection. Feedback from participants points to successful intra-project and cross-project interactions, with valuable sharing of ideas and learnings, during this important and enjoyable day.
