Newcastle University researchers, led by our NUPAcT Translational Food Safety Fellow Dr Marie McIntyre, will provide expertise to the network, including in systems-based approaches to food safety using biological modelling and evidence synthesis methods. Marie is the AMAST network deputy lead, and a NUPAcT Fellow, in partnership with the Food Standards Agency.

The rise of antimicrobial resistance presents a major threat to society. With more and more microbes becoming resistant to the drugs we use to control them today, our ability to prevent or cure disease is threatened in the future.

National and international governments and health agencies are taking action to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is now supporting eight new transdisciplinary networks to tackle AMR. 

The AMR in Agrifood Systems Transdisciplinary (AMAST) Network has been established to understand the challenge of AMR in the UK’s agrifood system. AMAST will receive ca. £650,000 from UKRI to support its work over four years.

The network will be co-ordinated by Dr Matthew Gilmour, based at the Quadram Institute, with an international expert advisory panel providing oversight.

“We’re really excited to be part of this new community. The agrifood system is incredibly complex with a diverse community of key players that are involved in the production of safe and nutritious foods.  So understanding the challenges of AMR requires a non-traditional approach” said Dr Gilmour.

AMAST will, for the first time, bring together various agrifood communities with academic researchers from different disciplines, to identify from the bottom up the challenges AMR poses within agrifood, and then collaborate to develop solutions.

Key threats of AMR in agrifood

The AMAST Network will involve members from different agrifood production systems, such as crop, livestock and aquaculture, from primary production through to the consumer. It will also bring in transdisciplinary academics, including bioscientists and social scientists as well as other areas that may not have previously engaged with AMR as a challenge.

The AMAST Leadership Team is made up of the Quadram Institute, Newcastle University, Royal Veterinary College, University of Stirling, Royal Holloway University of London, Cranfield University, James Hutton Institute, Royal Agricultural University, Scotland’s Rural College, University of Bristol, University of Leicester and University of Southampton. Partners on board the AMAST Network include ADAS, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, the Animal and Plant Health Agency, Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI), The Environmental Research Institute (University of Highlands and Islands), the FAI Farms, Fera Science, the Food Industry Initiative on Antimicrobials (FIIA), Menter a Busnes, NHS Highlands, Ricardo,  UK Agri-Tech Centre and Vet Sustain.

Through interviews, workshops and themed community meetings, all members of the network will be able to bring their perspectives on the key threats of AMR in agrifood. Through this the network will collectively identify and prioritise areas of opportunity, as well as understanding where more research is needed to plug gaps in our understanding.

Dr McIntyre commented: “Within my fellowship research, engagement with food system stakeholders has been vital to understand what needs to change in current approaches to food safety to combat the challenges posed by globalised food supplies and climate change. AMR in food is a problem that the approaches that we use at Newcastle can help to unpick, by working with stakeholders.”

You can find out more and sign up to the Network by visiting the website: www.AMAST.org.uk