In line with the JPIAMR Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, this call will focus on tackling the rising threat of antimicrobial resistance. Declining effectiveness of existing antimicrobials together with the low and insufficient number of promising new antimicrobials in the pipeline stresses the urgency to develop new protocols and innovative approaches for effective delivery and use of the already existing antimicrobials. This call aims to improve the treatment of bacterial and fungal infections (including co-infection) and/or the prevention of the emergence/spread of resistance in humans, animals or plants through the improvement of the efficacy, specificity, delivery, combinations and/or repurposing of drugs and plant protection agents.

Through this call, the ERA-NET JPIAMR-ACTION intends to create and reinforce the collaboration between research partners coming from different countries and different fields of expertise to promote research on antimicrobial resistance.

Proposals should focus on licenced antimicrobial agents (antibiotics/antifungals) or agents under pre-clinical and/or early clinical development, and should address at least one of the following topics:

• Improvement of drug/plant protection agent efficacy and/or specificity through chemical modifications (including hit to lead optimisation)
• Drug/plant protection agent repurposing;
• Optimisation of drug/plant protection agent combinations, alone or with adjunct therapies (including therapeutic vaccines);
• Design and implementation of new strategies (including optimisation of drug doses) for improved application, efficacy and delivery of single or combinations of antimicrobials;
• Design and implementation of innovative tools, including novel chemistry and/or new materials for improved application, efficacy and delivery of antimicrobials.

Proposals can focus on one or more of the three "One-Health" settings, namely:

• Human Health
• Animal Health (including wildlife, livestock, fishes, and companion animals)
• Plants (including trees and crops)

The following sub-topics are out of scope of the call:

• Antiviral and antiparasitic agents
• Discovery and/or screening of new compounds, new vaccines and/or new targets
• Proposals solely aiming to develop new diagnostics or new companion diagnostics (companion diagnostics in evaluation of the antimicrobials can be examined but they should not be the main topic of the proposal.)
• Participation of end-users, stakeholders and companies is encouraged.

BUDGET

The call is made at European level but each partner of the consortium is funded by its national funding agency and must follow its national funding rules. Spanish participants are funded by ISCIII. There are eligibility requirements for the institutions and principal investigators funded by ISCIII. (please see annex B of the Call text) For Spanish applicants funded by ISCIII: after the evaluation at European level, successful applicants will be invited to submit an application to ISCIII. Due to the complexity of the call, if you are interested in submitting an application we strongly recommend that you contact leonor.norton@sjd.es well in advance of the deadline.

The following funding limits (including direct + indirect costs) are considered eligibility criteria. Proposals not respecting these limits could be declared ineligible

Maximum funding per awarded Spanish project partner:

• Up to 175.000 € per partner (overheads included)
• Up to 250.000 € per coordinator (overheads included)

Eligibility rules for the consortia are:

• The consortium must include a minimum of three (3) eligible partners asking for funding from three (3) different eligible countries (including at least two amongst EU Member States or Associated Countries).
• The consortium can include a maximum of six (6) project partners (including non-funded partners). The maximum number of partners can be increased to seven (7) if at least a partner from an under-represented country 3 (including LMICs 4 ) or a company is included in the consortium.
• Additional National Rules and Regulations (Annex B of the call) of funders also apply and must be respected.
• Project partners not eligible for funding (e.g. from non-funding countries or not fundable according to national/regional regulations of the participating funding organisations) may be involved in projectsif they bring their own funding. The budget of non-funded partners shall not exceed 30% of the requested total transnational project budget.
• A Project partner not eligible to be funded cannot be the coordinator of a proposal and, like funded members, must accept all JPIAMR rules and guidelines.
• At both the pre- and full proposal stage, all partners, including non-funded partners, must submit a signed letter of intent along with their pre-/full proposal. In the absence of these letters, the proposal will be declared ineligible.

Eligible countries for this call are: Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Polando, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

Submissions of proposals will take place in two steps; a pre-proposal and a full proposal phase.

In both cases, one joint proposal document (in English, and using the provided template) shall be prepared by the project participants of a joint transnational proposal. The pre-proposal must be submitted by the coordinator before March 8th, 2022, 14h CET using the electronic submission platform available on the JPIAMR website.

Due to the complexity of this call, in case of interest for further information, please contact frecerca.internacional(ELIMINAR)@sjd.es