TDR receives £8.2 million boost for antimicrobial resistance
    operational research training

TDR news item: 14 December 2018

TDR’s Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative (SORT IT) 
has won a grant for £8.2 million from the UK National Institute for 
Health Research (NIHR). The funding is for operational research training 
related to antimicrobial resistance in 6 low- and middle-income 
countries. /*AMR SORT IT will start in January 2019 and run for three 
years in Colombia, Ghana, Myanmar, Nepal, Uganda and Viet Nam*/.

Professor Dame Sally Davies, England’s Chief Medical Officer, in making 
this funding announcement 12 December, said, “Containing and controlling 
antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as a global health threat will require 
investment in research at all levels from ‘bug to bedside’. This new 
partnership will fund research that aims to transform AMR policy and 
practice, and turn the tide against antimicrobial drug resistant 
infections.”

Antimicrobial resistance has the potential to kill as many as 10 million 
people each year and cost the world economy as much as US$ 100 trillion. 
AMR allows infections to persist and spread within and across 
populations. Standard antibiotic treatments then become ineffective, 
making even routine surgery potentially life-threatening.

SORT IT course, Myanmar

AMR SORT IT will empower countries to make better use of the information 
they collect to make evidence-based decisions and contribute to 
preventing and controlling the global spread of AMR.

TDR Director John Reeder said, “The UK Government has been a strong, 
long-term supporter of our efforts to improve the capacity of 
disease-endemic countries to strengthen health interventions through 
appropriate research for implementation. We are delighted to join the 
NIHR in applying one of our most successful training models to improve 
the quality and availability of evidence for making critical decisions 
to fight the enormous threat of AMR.”

The new funding leverages and strengthens TDR’s core investment in the 
SORT IT programme and allows it to diversify into this topical and 
important research area.


        Research for policy and practice changes

/*AMR SORT IT will start in January 2019 and run for three years in 
Colombia, Ghana, Myanmar, Nepal, Uganda and Viet Nam*/. It will support 
practitioners in those countries to bridge the gap between research and 
practice by providing training on how to use local and national AMR data 
to respond to drug-resistant infections. Training will be tailored to 
national AMR priorities using the well-tested SORT IT 
<http://www.who.int/tdr/capacity/strengthening/sort/en/> approach 
implemented by TDR since 2012.

SORT IT will not only teach practical skills for conducting operational 
research on AMR. There is a strong component for fostering policy and 
practice change. In addition to identifying barriers and investigating 
solutions, participants will learn how to involve the users of research 
in their plans and tailor their plans and information appropriately.

These capacity development activities will complement investments in 
national AMR surveillance infrastructure made through the UK Department 
of Health and Social Care’s Fleming Fund <http://www.flemingfund.org/>. 
The funding is part of the NIHR Global Health Research Official 
Development Assistance (ODA) budget which supports research for the 
direct and primary benefit of people in low- and middle-income countries.

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For more information, contact Rony Zachariah <mailto:[log in to unmask]>.


      Related links

  * More on SORT IT
    <https://www.who.int/entity/tdr/capacity/strengthening/sort/en/index.html>

  * More on operational research
    <https://www.who.int/entity/tdr/diseases-topics/operational-implementation-research/en/index.html>

  * More the NIHR Global Health Research Programmes and Partnerships
    <http://www.nihr.ac.uk/globalhealth>
  * TDR capacity strengthening programme
    <https://www.who.int/entity/tdr/capacity/en/index.html>

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