The current lack of a holistic understanding of the underlying biological basis of AMR explains a significant obstacle to curbing it. While the efforts to programme EU and Member State research investments towards One Health strategies are aiming precisely for this holistic understanding, they call not only for (at least) steady financial resources, but also for ensuring the involvement of all the relevant academic and other stakeholders in the research activities, as well as their dissemination. The study on a future proofing analysis of the 2017 AMR plan provides a set of considerations on the current obstacles in both basic and applied research. While, for instance, ‘basic research has not yet led to a precise understanding of the mechanisms by which resistance is transferred’, the translation of the knowledge created to design and place new treatments and diagnostics tools is still non-linear, and requires time especially for the development of new antimicrobials, as noted by the Commission staff working document mentioned above. Also, as mentioned by the same study, unlike for single-pathogen threats, such as COVID-19, there is unlikely to be a ‘silver bullet’ solution to AMR. For instance, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic the EU-funded joint action on AMR and healthcare-associated infections stressed the importance of also supporting research on infection prevention, namely through behavioural science.
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