Championing an interdisciplinary approach

Bristol AMR is led by a cross-faculty committee with representatives from the Faculties of Life Sciences, Health Sciences, Science, Engineering,  and Social Sciences and Law. The team nucleates and forges new links via networking events to help create new conversations and collaborative projects. The network helps Bristol’s interdisciplinary AMR research community to come together to compete for future large-scale funding, strengthening the University as a UK centre of excellence for interdisciplinary AMR research.

Bristol AMR investigators are conducting research projects across many disciplines and research groups in the: 

• biomedical sciences
• life sciences
• veterinary sciences
• clinical and dental sciences
• social sciences and humanities
• physical sciences and engineering

Research Institutes

AMR research at Bristol aligns with the University's Research Institutes and Specialist Research Institutes.

• The Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research  (nurturing research, improving health) 
• The Cabot Institute for the Environment (which supports environmental and global food security research)
• The Jean Golding Institute (for data intensive research)
• The Bristol BioDesign Institute (which uses synthetic biology approaches to both the design and production of antibiotics and vaccines)
• The Bristol Population Health Science Institute

This wide spectrum of research helps Bristol lead the way in tackling AMR. Our AMR investigators, together with partner organisations and clinicians, are making transformative contributions in interdiscipinary AMR research and policy development.

External partners

Our research benefits from close partnerships with clinicians and clinical scientists in:

• University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust
• North Bristol NHS Trust
• UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA)
• NIHR Health Protection Research Unit for the Evaluation of Interventions (HPRU)
• NIHR funded Bristol Biomedical Research Centre

Regional partnership with the GW4 Alliance 

The University of Bristol is a key partner in the GW4 Alliance of research-intensive universities alongside Bath, Cardiff and Exeter. 

Bristol AMR is part of the GW4 AMR Alliance along with the Milner Centre for Evolution (Bath), the Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Biology Network at Cardiff and the Exeter AMR interdisciplinary network    

International collaborations and partners

A particular focus of AMR research at Bristol involves developing international research collaborations. We champion working with AMR investigators on global projects in low-and-middle income countries. Examples include:

• Our MRC-Newton Fund UK-China Partnership Programme with investigators in China 
• An MRC/DoH award for the 'AMR in Global Context' call with investigators in Thailand (OH DART project)
• Global Innovation Fund (GAMRIF) funded FARMS-SAFE project with investigators in Argentina
• EPSRC GCRF-funded Nanoparticle based rapid diagnostics for TB disease project with investigators in Kenya
• MRC-Newton Fund and South Africa Medical Research Council 'Antibiotic Accelerator Hub' with investigators in South Africa

Supporting emerging AMR investigators 

Bristol leads the £4m Medical Research Foundation National PhD Training Programme in AMR Research which is funding 30 multidisciplinary PhD studentships in 14 universities and institutions across the UK. This innovative interdisciplinary training programme has also built a national wider cohort/network of 150 research scholars in AMR to tackle this challenge together.