CwPAMS Programmes

Second round of CwPAMS grants extended to eight African countries in 2021

The first round of CwPAMS funding was awarded to 12 selected health partnerships’ during 2019 – 2020 between multidisciplinary NHS teams in the UK and their counterparts in Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia to support antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) initiatives to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Awarded grants during 2019-2020

Ghana

• Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust – The Assemblies of God Hospital, Saboba
• UK Faculty of Public Health (FPH) – Ghana Public Health Association (GPHA)
• North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, London (NMUH) – Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH)
• University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Ho
• Healthcare Improvement Scotland – Ghana Police Hospital and Keta Municipal Hospital

Tanzania

• Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC)

Uganda

• Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – Makerere University and Mulago National Referral and Teaching Hospital
• University of Salford – Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda
• The University of Manchester – Gulu Regional Referral Hospital
• Nottingham Trent University – Makerere University School of Public Health
• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) – Makerere University College of Health Sciences and Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration (IDRC)

Zambia

• University of Sussex; Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) – University Teaching Hospital (UTH), Lusaka

CwPAMS Programme Extension

In 2021, after completing the first round of programmes, a second round of grants were made available to new and existing programmes in eight African countries including Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Malawi and Kenya under the Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship Scheme (CwPAMS) with support from UK Department of Health and Social Care’s Fleming Fund.

A total of £10,000 – £20,000 each is available to existing and new partnerships for a period of 6-7 months and will begin from mid-October 2021. All activity must be completed by mid-May 2022 with final reports due by 1st June 2022.

With support from the Fleming Fund, National Action Plans (NAPs) on AMR, including AMS activities, have been developed in all countries. Complete World Health Organization (WHO) AMR self-assessment datasets are also available for all eight countries. This includes key findings on the progress with their NAPs, Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) and AMS. Initiatives focused on surveillance of resistant organisms already exist, but there is a vacuum when it comes to AMS. Partnerships should therefore place a central focus on AMS whilst incorporating and expanding the findings from other IPC initiatives.

Grants are available for projects focused on:

1. Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS), including surveillance – mandatory;
2. Utilising/developing pharmacy expertise and capacity – mandatory;
3. Infection Prevention Control (IPC);
4. Strengthening capacity of using clinical microbiology data

Category A: Start-up CwPAMS Projects

Under this stream, grants of £10,000 – £20,000 for health partnerships new to CwPAMS will be awarded. Any health partnership, whether newly-formed or long-established, is eligible as long as the two leads have not previously been awarded a CwPAMS grant together.

Category B: Existing CwPAMS projects

Under this stream, grants of £10,000 – £20,000 will be awarded to existing CwPAMS partnerships to focus on initial steps that will pave the way for longer-term projects and build on previous work carried out.

Click here to read more about the application process.