Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity: International collaboration to address antimicrobial resistance

Apply for funding to develop or improve drugs or plant protection agents to help:

  • treat bacterial or fungal infections
  • reduce the spread of resistance to drugs.

You should:

  • be based at a research organisation eligible for MRC funding
  • apply as part of a consortium of transnational partners.

Your project should involve either:

  • licensed antibiotics or antifungals
  • agents in pre-clinical or early clinical development.

It could aim to:

  • improve efficacy or specificity
  • repurpose existing interventions
  • optimise combinations of drugs or plant protection agents
  • design and implement:
    • new strategies
    • innovative tools, including novel chemistry and new materials.

Who can apply

Standard UKRI eligibility and council full economic costings (fEC) rules apply. Please check the UK national annex in the opportunity documents for additional information.

Applications must include a minimum of three eligible partners asking for funding from three different countries (at least two from EU member states or associated countries).

Six project partners (including non-funded partners) maximum are permitted, rising to seven if partners from under represented countries (Lithuania, Poland or low- and middle-income countries) are included in the consortium.

Please note: people applying from separate legal entities within a country are considered separate partners. Only one award will be made to the UK partners working on the same project in line with normal MRC terms and conditions of award.

Project partners not eligible for funding (for example, from non-funding countries or not fundable according to national or regional regulations of the participating funding organisations) may be involved in projects if they bring their own funding.

The budget of non-funded partners should not exceed 30% of the total transnational project budget requested. Project partners not eligible for funding from this opportunity cannot be consortium coordinators and, as with funded members, must accept all JPIAMR rules and guidelines.

Additional national rules and regulations of funders will also apply. Please refer to Annex B of the opportunity document for further information.

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- or full proposal. In the absence of these letters, the proposal will be declared ineligible.

What we're looking for

This is the fourteenth JPIAMR joint transnational research funding opportunity, named ‘Disrupting drug Resistance Using Innovative Design’ (DRUID).

DRUID aims to improve:

  • treatment of bacterial and fungal infections (including co-infection)
  • prevention of the emergence or spread of resistance in humans, animals or plants.

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

  • improvement of drug or plant protection agent efficacy and/or specificity through chemical modifications (including hit to lead optimisation)
  • drug or plant protection agent repurposing
  • optimisation of drug or 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, and/or
  • animal health (including wildlife, livestock, fishes, and companion animals), and/or
  • plants (including trees and crops).

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

  • 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.

The estimated UK budget will be €1,800,000. UK-based research teams participating in the opportunity will be funded by BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC, representing UKRI.

Individual consortia may request up to a maximum of €300 000 UK funding, per application. UK-based applicants requesting up to the maximum are welcome, but we also welcome applications requesting under €100 000, to maximise the number of transnational consortia that can be funded.

The UK component of applications should use fEC. The total amount requested must be 80% fEC. In the ’financial plan’ section of the JPIAMR application form, the ’sum requested’ is the 80% fEC amount. The ’total’ is the 100% fEC amount plus any further resources.

How to apply

Step one: read the full opportunity details

Before you prepare an application, please read the full opportunity details on the JPIAMR website.

Step two: set up your consortium

You must apply as part of a transnational consortium of three to seven partners.

Find full consortium criteria in the full opportunity details on the JPIAMR website.

Find project partners using the partner search tool.

Step three: submit your pre-proposal

You must apply through the JPIAMR submission platform. You can access this through the full opportunity details on the JPIAMR website.

You must complete a UK budget proforma (Word, 46KB). This must be submitted to amr@mrc.ukri.org.

The pre-proposal deadline is 8 March 2022 14:00 CET.

Step four: submit your full proposal

Full proposals are by invitation only. We will inform selected applicants by late June 2022.

You must complete a UK budget proforma (Word, 46KB). This must be submitted to amr@mrc.ukri.org.

The full proposal deadline is 5 July 2022 12:00 CET.

Funding decisions will be made in October 2022.

Step five: record your successful application

If your application is chosen for funding, you’ll be asked to submit your application in the Joint Electronic Submission system (Je-S).

This is so UKRI can administer your funding through Je-S. Your application will not be reassessed.

This must be done by the beginning of December 2022.

How we will assess your application

Read the assessment process on the JPIAMR website.

Successful applicants will be notified by early November 2022.

Contact details

Ask about this funding opportunity

Email: amr@mrc.ukri.org

Additional info

Webinar for potential applicants

JPIAMR is pleased to invite researchers to a live webinar on 25 January 2022 presenting the opportunity and the partner search tool. Representatives from funders participating in the opportunity will be available to answer questions.

Supporting documents

UK budget proforma (Word, 46KB)

This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services.