HomePractical info & communicationsCalls for projectsEarly-career grants: Prevention of antibiotic resistance (2022)

Early-career grants: Prevention of antibiotic resistance (2022)

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Application deadline: March 10th
Project time: up to 1 year
Grant size: Up to SEK 300 000 (approx EUR 30 000)
Admissible costs: All relevant and reasonable expenses can be included in the budget, including living costs/salary for grantee considering the cost of living at the relevant location

Grant description on this webpage

Background

The aim of this call is to improve the ability and interest of promising early-career individuals from diverse backgrounds to contribute through their professional careers to effective AMR work with a broad, cross-disciplinary perspective.

Several underlying drivers of antibiotic resistance need to be addressed with competence outside the mainstream AMR sciences (medicine, biotechnology, biology, etc). This includes core issues such as public awareness and perception of AMR, awareness of the role of infection prevention, translation of awareness into effective action, development of evidence for interventions and knowledge transfer to decision makers.

Addressing these issues is challenging because:

  • There is a need for increased capacity and capability to address these issues that require competence outside the mainstream AMR sciences, particularly in middle- and low-income countries.
  • Meanwhile, we believe that the potential career paths in AMR for early-career individuals outside the mainstream AMR sciences are often unclear, making it harder to attract such talent to work in the field.
  • There is also a geographical mismatch between investments and needs, so that most of the funding for AMR work is invested in high-income countries, while the greatest need for such investments is seen in low- and middle-income countries. This includes funding for entry-level positions.

Scope of the call

With this call, we aim to fund early-career individuals that want to carry out projects on prevention of antibiotic resistance.

Examples of what we might fund:

  • Advocacy/awareness: e.g., support for journalism students to work on AMR, organization of AMR awareness competitions, support for the production of documentaries or other communication materials or campaigns
  • Training: e.g., organization of AMR training courses, supporting living costs for unpaid internships at established organizations
  • Research: e.g., support for pilot studies by junior researchers, or support for junior researchers from non-STEM fields going into AMR research

We would not fund:

  • Hobby projects: Small projects where the applicant is not committing significant time to the project, and/or where the quality and ambition level of the project is deemed low
  • Internships that appear unlikely to advance the career of the applicant
  • Projects related to development of new treatments rather than prevention of antibiotic resistance
  • Projects where the applicant does not have access to necessary support in the form of mentorship, supervision or similar (adequate to their level of experience)

Who can apply?

  • Early-career individuals: Students at bachelor and masters level, PhD students, and individuals graduating during 2020-2022. If you are uncertain if you are eligible, please reach out. There are no geographical boundaries; we accept applications from anywhere in the world.
  • Institutions and organizations: Organizations that wish to offer paid internships to the same target group that is defined above can also apply.

Selection criteria

Importance: We aim to support applicants that could significantly contribute to preventing the development of antibiotic resistance through their careers.

Neglectedness: We prioritize funding projects in neglected areas, such as applicants from low- and middle-income countries and applicants that have a background or focus outside of the mainstream AMR sciences.

Feasibility: The project should have a plausible likelihood of success. This means that the applicant should have the capacity and competence to carry out the project in a good way, and access to necessary support (e.g. a mentor or supervisor).

Potential for catalyst effect: We prioritize applications that have potential to lead to additional projects or interventions with large effect, or that can improve the ability of other stakeholders to have a large impact. This could for example be achieved by exploratory research into new fields, or by developing tools that enable improvements of other projects or work in the area.

Transparency and accessibility: We promote transparent reporting of methodology, open access publications, and when appropriate preregistration of research questions. Details will be discussed with applicants during the application process to the extent that this is relevant for their application.

Application process
The first step of the application is an online application describing what the grant would be used for, what the applicant is hoping to achieve and who would be involved in the project. We might request additional material after submission if we think something is unclear or missing.

In the second step, the most promising applicants are selected for short, online interviews by the staff. These interview notes will then be presented together with the application materials from step one to the board of PAR Foundation who selects the grantees.

Apply for this grant on this webpage