Dear All, I think the importance of this is self-explanatory (go here for the .pdf information pack):
“The Department of Health and Social Care is seeking to make 6 appointments to the Advisory Committee on Antimicrobial Prescribing, Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infections (ARPHAI). ARPHAI is a UK-wide, independent, non-executive advisory committee, which provides practical and scientific advice to the government on minimising the risk of healthcare associated infections and addressing antimicrobial resistance.
“As a member of ARPHAI you will need to provide expert advice on infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance in the context of the current clinical setting. You must also provide expert advice and participate in sub-groups and relevant issues outside of formal meetings and engage fully in collective consideration of the issues, taking account of the full range of relevant factors, including any guidance issued by the sponsor department or the responsible minister.
“We are looking for 2 lay members who have an interest in social care / community healthcare with an understanding of the experiences, needs and issues important to patients, carers and the wider public.
“We are also seeking 4 specialist scientific members who possess up-to-date experience at a senior level with a record of achievement at national and/or international level in one or more of the following fields:
- infection prevention and control (lead nurse) with practical experience of MDR (multidrug resistance), CPE (carbapenemase producing enterobacterales) and gram-negative infection (x1)
- statistician/modeller with an interest/understanding of AMR and gram-negative infections (x1)
- clinical microbiologist (x2)
“The roles involve a time commitment of around 3 plenary meetings a year. Members may be invited to be involved in subgroup meetings alongside these plenary meetings with additional time for reading and preparation required. The proposed length of term for new appointments is 3 years.
“There is no remuneration for this post but expenses will be paid in line with Public Health England policy. For more information on the roles please see the candidate information pack below. To apply, please send a cv and supporting letter to appointments.team@dhsc.gov.uk. If you require an alternative format please contact Ben Jones on 0113 254 6557 ben.jones1@dhsc.gov.uk quoting the reference VAC – 1730.”
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This looks like a great way to contribute! Could this be you? A tweet about this suggests that residence in the UK may be required. The deadline for applications is 13 Sep 2021.
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 (most current list is here):
- 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):
- 24-26 Aug 2021 (virtual, EU-centered timings): The 5th edition of the annual AMR conference sponsored by the BEAM Alliance, CARB-X, the Novo REPAIR Impact Fund, the IMI Accelerator, and the European Biotechnology Network. The in-person version of this meeting is consistently excellent; the video-based version will have to do for 2021. Go here for details.
- 30 Aug – 1 Sep 2021 (virtual, East Coast US timings): FDA (CBER)-NIAID-sponsored workshop entitled “Science and Regulation of Bacteriophage Therapy.” Go here for details and to register.
- 1-2 Sep 2021 (virtual, 10a-3p EST on both days): FDA -sponsored workshop entitled “Advancing the Development of Pediatric Therapeutics (ADEPT 7) Complex Innovative Trial Design.”
- In brief, “The Complex Innovative Trial Design Pilot Meeting Program (CID Program) facilitates and advances the use of complex and innovative trial designs that have the potential to optimize drug development in small populations.
- “Innovations that have been proposed include Bayesian and other methods of utilizing external historical information from previous pediatric trials or other populations (such as adults), adaptive designs, bridging biomarkers, etc.”
- “The workshop will specifically focus on two topics of interest: bridging biomarkers in pediatric extrapolation and Bayesian techniques in pediatric studies. In addition, the workshop will allow for an open dialogue around the use of these approaches among regulators, industry, academia, and patient organizations.”
- Looks fascinating. Go here for the detailed Federal Register notice and here to register.
- 30 Sep 2021 (virtual, 9a-noon EST, 2-5p BST): Featuring Dame Sally Davies and Marc Mendelson, this is a Vivli-sponsored workshop entitled “A Foundation Briefing on Industry AMR Surveillance: Data for Action” that will discuss Vivli’s new surveillance sharing platform. Go here to register.
- 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.
- 5-8 Nov 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.
- 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.
- 9-13 May 2022 (Athens and online): 40th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Go here for details.
- 20-24 Sep 2022 (New Delhi): 21st Congress of the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology (ISHAM). Go here for details.
- 25-28 Oct 2022 (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.