GW4 Research Strengths
GW4 institutions (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, and Exeter) are already home to world-leading research facilities and complementary expertise in the field of AMR. Proven academic excellence in AMR research across disciplines and across the institutions is demonstrated by a portfolio of AMR relevant research funding in excess of £40m.
The GW4 AMR Alliance will collate and build upon the extensive multidisciplinary expertise across the institutions to drive the global, One Health effort in tackling AMR.
The GW4 AMR Alliance will ensure effective interdisciplinary approaches and deliver trans-disciplinary and trans-institutional collaboration, bringing together a range of stakeholders from environmental, animal, and global health sectors alongside two national health systems (Public Health Wales and Public Health England/National Institute for Health Protection).
BATH
The University of Bath is home to The Milner Centre for Evolution, a unique, cross-faculty research centre bridging biology, health and education. Bath’s main areas of expertise within this field include AMR mechanisms; evolution, public health and One Health; and interventions.
BRISTOL
Bristol AMR is a well-established institutional research network across all six faculties supported by the University’s Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research. It is one of their seven Research Strands, which are funded through the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund. The network has three major interdisciplinary research strands: AMR discovery science; AMR research applications; and AMR in a global context. Bristol AMR offers links through to the University of Bristol’s Veterinary School (One Health Antimicrobial Research is a core theme within its new strategy), hosts the National Mycology Reference Laboratory as well as offering clinical links into the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and PHE’s NIHR Health Protection Research Unit for the Evaluation of Interventions (HPRU). Bristol AMR investigators have received £17.2M UKRI AMR research funding since 2015.
CARDIFF
The Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Biology Network at Cardiff University undertakes research in three broad areas: AMR, infection biology, and antibiotic and anti-infective discovery.
EXETER
The Exeter AMR network, covering AMR emerging in bacterial, fungal, and parasitic diseases, takes a One Health perspective and comprises five strands: public practices, evolution, technology, planetary health, and environment. Additional activity includes advising the United Nations, World Health Organization and the EU. Exeter is home to the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (since September 2019). Exeter has attracted >£10M of funding for AMR since 2014.
