Proposal for the implementation of an EU Reference Laboratory for public health in the field of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in bacteria

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a major threat to human health around the world, in terms of deaths, burden of disease, hospital length of stay, healthcare costs and socio-economic impact. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic revealed the need in Europe for harmonisation and expansion of the capacity for outbreak detection of emerging infectious diseases, including those associated to AMR. Thus, a call for the designation of six EU Reference Laboratories for Public Health, one of which is in the field of Antimicrobial Resistance (EURL-AMR) was proposed by the European Commission (Regulation 2022/2371). Statens Serum Institut (SSI) in Denmark, the Technical University of Denmark, National Food Institute (DTU Food), and the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Phenotypic Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (also the EUCAST Development Laboratory, both harboured by Clinical Microbiology Region Kronoberg) (EDL) established a consortium to undertake the role and functions of the EURL-PH-AMR. The support will be delivered in the field of AMR in bacteria of public health relevance, and relate to reference diagnostics, reference material resources, external quality assessments, scientific advice and technical assistance, collaboration and research, monitoring, alert and support in outbreak response to bacteria resistant to antimicrobials and training. This proposal describes the specific roles and functions of the consortium, which include provision of support to members of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) laboratory networks, i.e. the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net) and the European Antimicrobial Resistance Genes Surveillance Network (EURGen-Net). The capacity building activities are the overarching goal of this endeavour is to assess, develop and improve strategies for prevention and control of AMR in target priority pathogens.