On May 22-23, 2023, CAMRIA organized its second lunch-to-lunch seminar. After last year’s successful event in Bekkjarvik, this year CAMRIA partners, Scientific Advisory Board members and international collaborators gathered in Solstrand. The focus of the event was twofold – first, we looked into the ongoing projects funded by the centre, their progress and perspectives for working together across them, to later look into more global aspects of the antimicrobial resistance crisis.
On the first day, Randi Jacobsen Bertelsen, Iain Johnston and Brita Skodvin (with help from Anne Lise Fimreite and Erla Løvseth) presented the progress and first findings of 3 CAMRIA-funded projects: MARGIN, HyperEvol and Media and AMR. They also shared their reflections on what kind of knowledge and data is needed across different projects and partners. The theme of interdisciplinarity has remained relevant in the following discussion on future perspectives and collaboration. The day concluded with a feedback session, where representatives of CAMRIA’s Scientific Advisory Board – Alison Holmes and Jan Kreft, and Trond Mohn Foundation – Anne Marie Haga provided comments and suggestions for our centre.
After focusing on CAMRIA’s progress on a local level on day 1, the second day of the event looked at the problem of AMR from a more international perspective. It started with an inspiring keynote on “AMR in global context” by Adam Roberts, Liverpool School of Tropical Science. Then, several projects where CAMRIA partners are involved – NORAD, ProRide and other previous and ongoing projects in Tanzania were presented by Guttorm Alendal and Sabrina Moyo. After a short break, we had an opportunity to get new insights from social sciences-perspective thanks to Lise Rakner who talked about “Researching Africa: Democratization, decolonization and partnerships”. The session and entire seminar concluded with a mini-debate where possibilities for new interdisciplinary CAMRIA projects in Africa were discussed.
Overall, it was a great and thought-provoking meeting which reached the objective of bringing the CAMRIA team closer together and inspiring our partners to look at their research through new and interdisciplinary perspectives. We have high hopes that this will reach fruition in the future and generate new collaborations on further antimicrobial resistance-related research.
Full program
Monday, May 22nd
12.00 – 13.00: Lunch
13.00 – 16.30: Status and future perspectives from the TMS-funded projects and CAMRIA
Chair: Iren Høyland Löhr, Stavanger University Hospital (SUS)
13.00 – 13.15: Welcome by the Program Committee – Iren Høyland Löhr
13.15 – 13.45: MARGIN (15 min status + 15 min questions/discussion) – Randi Jacobsen Bertelsen, Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen (UiB)
13.45 – 14.15: HyperEvol (15 min status + 15 min questions/discussion) – Iain Johnston, Department of Mathematics (UiB)
14.15 – 14.45: Media and AMR (15 min status + 15 min questions/discussion) – Brita Skodvin, Haukeland University Hospital (HUS)
14.45 – 15.15: Coffee
Chair: Guttorm Alendal, Department of Mathematics, UiB
15.15 – 16.15: CAMRIA – strategy and the way forward? – Stig Harthug, HUS (10 min)
Future perspectives and collaboration – Randi Jacobsen Bertelsen, Iain Johnston and Brita Skodvin (10 min each)
Debate (moderator: Guttorm Alendal)
16.15 – 16.30: Input from CAMRIA’s Scientific Advisory Board – Alison Holmes, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London & Jan-Ulrich Kreft, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham
16.30 – 16.45: Feedback/input from Trond Mohn Foundation (TMS) – Anne Marie Haga, TMS
17.00 – 19.00: Social activities
Tuesday, May 23rd
09.00 – 12.00: AMR in a global perspective – should CAMRIA go global?
Chair: Stig Harthug
09.00 – 09.45: Keynote: “AMR in global context” – Adam Roberts, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
09.45 – 10.00: Coffee
10.00 – 10.45: Short presentations of ongoing projects in Africa (15 min each)
NORAD-project Tanzania – Guttorm Alendal
Previous and ongoing projects in Tanzania – Bjørn Blomberg, Department of Clinical Science, UiB & HUS
ProRIDE – Sabrina John Moyo, Department of Clinical Science, UiB
10.45 – 11.00: Coffee
11.00 – 11.30: “Researching Africa: Democratization, decolonialization and partnerships” – Lise Rakner, Department of Government, UiB
11.30 – 12.00: Debate: Possibilities for new interdisciplinary CAMRIA projects in Africa – Stig Harthug
12.00 – 13.00: Lunch and farewell