OneHealth EJP: Our presentation on the value of CE in AMR research

Back in June two of CE4AMR's Early Career Researcher's presented the findings of our GCRF funded challenge cluster project at the OneHealth EJP 2021. This hybrid conference, based physically in Copenhagen, brought together participants from all over Europe and beyond - some presenting  in Copenhagen and some virtually. Dr Jessica Mitchell (University of Leeds) and Dr Mariana Fonseca-Braga (University of Lancaster) presented online from their homes, as has become the norm for members of the our cluster known as CE4AMR: The One Health Approach. You may watch a recording of the full presentation here: https://vimeo.com/579469906

Members of CE4AMR: The One Health Approach meet in Kathmandu in 2019

The cluster team began their collaboration at CE4AMR's inaugural event in Kathmandu, 2019. The project itself has run over the past 14months with the aim of exchanging knowledge between six existing AMR research projects which utilize community engagement and community-focused methodologies. The project began by designing a series of research questions which were then answered by each project team and reflected upon by the wider group. Answers to these questions then catalyzed a series of workshops with National AMR stakeholders in each country setting (find out more about these events in our blogs section).

Workshop participants discuss Ghana's AMR challenges and priorities in human, animal and environmental health (One Health).Photo Credit: Dust Bunny

Discussions within these workshops highlighted key areas of AMR action within each country and specifically explored areas where CE could benefit the research, policy and practice landscape in AMR. There were also discussion around the barriers and challenges to utilizing CE approaches in AMR, and in particularly the need for more training, guidance and support on this methodology.

Workshop activities identified Ghana's National Priorities on AMR across the One Health Sphere. Photo Credit: Dust Bunny

The cluster is now in it's final synthesis stages where we are translating our learnings into an academic publication on the current usage of CE in AMR, and an open access handbook to support the development of CE projects tackling AMR.

Our findings will shortly be shared in a global call to action (details to follow) but for now you may watch a recording of the full presentation here: https://vimeo.com/579469906 

Both Jess and Mariana were thrilled to be able to represent the cluster at an international conference albeit online. The cluster project has been a fantastic learning experience, and great team to be involved in but we have all missed the physical interactions of field work and networking events. Fingers cross future collaborations which develop from the cluster will be able to involve cross-team visits and physical collaborations.