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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a pressing threat to health. As microbes become increasingly resistant to antimicrobial agents, our ability to treat infections becomes compromised, and this erodes the health benefits achieved as a result of progressive advances in medicine and public health.

The Collaborative Solutions Targeting Antimicrobial Resistance Threats in Health System (CoSTAR-HS) was funded to build up capacity, infrastructure, and networking opportunities for AMR research in Singapore under the National Medical Research Council's (NMRC's) Centre Grant call in October 2016. The funding was renewed in December 2021 to build on and enhance the prior strategy that has fundamentally remained unchanged since its inception in 2017. It is a partnership involving researchers and clinicians from the National University Health System (NUHS), Singapore General Hospital (SGH), and the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID). The new partner institution for the CoSTAR-HS renewal is the National University Polyclinics (NUP) – a key partner for crucial research on AMR in primary care.

The CoSTAR-HS Antimicrobial Resistance Research Grant (CoSTAR-HS ARG) aims to encourage exploratory and developmental research projects by providing support for early and conceptual stage research. It is intended for innovative research projects that:

• Develop and strengthen inter-institutional research collaboration or networks in Singapore

• Improve our understanding on AMR and its control in Singapore

Applicants are encouraged to tap on the facility cores developed under CoSTAR-HS and the details of the facility cores can be found in the 'RIE2025-AMR-CG-Facility-Cores-1' PDF file.

Proposals are encouraged to be in line with any of the research themes within CoSTAR-HS as shown below (i to vii):

1. Primary Care Antimicrobial Stewardship (PC-AMS) – Optimising antibiotic prescribing in primary care

2. Health systems, policies and economics in AMR control

3. Population CPE Epidemiology To Guide Infection Prevention

4. Built environment: The Achilles heel of MDRO control in healthcare facilities

5. Detecting Antibiotic Resistance and Bacterial Persistence to Identify Innovative Treatment Strategies against XDR-GNB

6. Benchtop-to-bedside and beyond: Incorporating analytics and augmented intelligence (AI) strategies for the treatment of infections caused by multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs)

7. Innovative Clinical Trials

Details on the research themes can be found in the 'RIE2025-AMR-CG-Research-Themes' PDF file.

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Eligibility

1. Interested investigators/researchers from SingHealth cluster institutions are welcome to apply as PI as long as there are investigators/researchers* from at least 1 of the 4 main institution partners of CoSTAR-HS (NUHS, SGH, NCID, NUP) *Note: Investigators/ researchers here can refer to either PI/ Co-Investigator/ Collaborator.

2. PI must have a PhD and/or MBBS/BDS/PharmD/MD and/or other appropriate Postgraduate Qualifications (at least a Master's Degree). For proposals involving patients, either the PI or Co-I should be SMC-registered; or should be able to demonstrate ability to access patients through SMC-registered collaborators. It is recognized that some studies may not require patient involvement.

3. PI must hold a primary appointment in a local publicly funded institution and salaried by the institution.

4. The PI need not be from any of the 3 main institution partners of CoSTAR-HS.

Funding Details
Funding support of up to S$50,000 per project spanning no more than 12 months.

Submission/Application procedure

1. Applications should be typed in Arial font size 10 double spacing using the attached application form.

2. 1 soft copy with signatures (1 file including all attachments either in Word DOC or PDF format) must be submitted to Ms Zunairah at ephzun@nus.edu.sg through your Host Institution's Research offices by 31 March 2022 (Thursday), 5pm.

SingHealth PIs are to please refer to your respective Institutional Research Administrators for guidance on internal deadlines and submission procedures set by your institutions.

Contact person

NUS Contact Person:
Ms Zunairah Binti Lukman
Email: ephzun@nus.edu.sg

Additional Information
CoSTAR-HS ARG Application Form.doc

RIE2025-AMR-CG-Facility-Cores-1.pdf

RIE2025-AMR-CG-Research-Themes.pdf