IMI’s Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Accelerator programme comprises several projects with the shared goal of progressing the development of new medicines to treat or even prevent resistant bacterial infections in Europe and worldwide. The COMBINE project was created to coordinate the AMR Accelerator projects and provide them with the resources they need to achieve their goals.

These include data management guidelines and an IT infrastructure to enable the collection, aggregation, storage, sharing and analysis of datasets generated by AMR Accelerator projects. COMBINE will also help to ensure that data adheres to ‘FAIR’ principles, i.e. it is findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-useable. Promoting communication among the projects is another COMBINE priority.

On the scientific front, COMBINE aims to improve the animal models used in AMR research and develop improved tools to reliably translate results in animals into results in humans. The project also aims to optimise the design and analysis of clinical trials. These tools will help all projects in the programme to deliver results that will help to accelerate the development of novel antibiotics and vaccines against AMR.