Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health challenge with an estimated 67% increase in global deaths attributable to AMR by 2050. The European Partnership One Health AMR (EUP OHAMR) is aiming to reduce the burden of AMR with an integrated One Health (OH) approach, recognising that human, animal and plant health are interdependent and interlinked with the environment. The partnership will boost AMR research and innovation (R&I) addressing the current knowledge gaps with the aim to improve surveillance of resistant pathogens and provide better diagnostics and more effective treatments of drug-resistant infections. It will support implementation research on prevention measures reducing the use of antimicrobials and spread of AMR and launch an ambitious work programme of joint activities to coordinate R&I investments, facilitate the use and re-use of R&I data, strengthen AMR R&I capacities and facilitate both knowledge translation and uptake of research results and innovations by industry, society, and policy makers. The EUP OHAMR builds on the long-standing collaboration of the partners from the Joint Programme Initiative on AMR (JPIAMR) but with a bigger ambition and a broader scope. The partnership consists of 53 partners from 30 countries from the European Union (EU) and beyond. With active engagement of key stakeholders across the AMR landscape, the partnership will strengthen European and global synergies through alignment of research priorities, policies, and investments. Furthermore, EUP OHAMR will support multisectoral and multidisciplinary collaborations to break the existing silos in AMR research. It will result in increased knowledge and solutions and provide an evidence base for uptake into policy and practice to prevent and tackle AMR. Thus, the EUP OHAMR will deliver towards to the priorities set in the European One Health Action plan against AMR, thereby strengthening the European Research and Innovation Area ecosystem and contribute to making the EU a best-practice region on AMR.

Health and care systems in Europe are facing core common challenges, which require harmonised and coordinated solutions. The European Partnership on Transforming Health and Care Systems (THCS) represents a unique strategic opportunity to bring together stakeholders, create synergies, coordinate Research and Innovation actions, facilitate the digitization of health and care services and support the transformation of health and care systems with innovative solutions driven by knowledge and evidence. The general objective of THCS is to contribute to the transition towards more sustainable, efficient, resilient, inclusive, innovative and high-quality people-centred health and care systems equally accessible to all people. For this purpose, THCS aims not only to create new knowledge and scientific evidence but to co-design new solutions and support their transfer and scale-up across countries and regions while also fostering capacity building. The approach for a successful and smooth implementation of THCS will focus on three main work streams: 1) Filling the knowledge gaps with research actions aiming at providing the necessary evidence, 2) Implementation and transfer aiming at supporting actions focusing on the testing of existing solutions and adaptability in different national and regional contexts, and 3) Boosting health and care systems through dedicated activities (capacity building and trainings, study visits, technical assistance, twinning, networking) involving different health and care stakeholders. To address these three work streams, THCS is built around four pillars that group different types of activities addressing different types of stakeholders of the health and care system. The activities are organised in ten Work Packages working closely together to achieve the objectives of the Partnership and clustered in the four Pillars.

Severe COVID-19 disease and the high frequency of its long-term complications are now a major health problem worldwide. Due to the significant heterogeneity of COVID-19 disease profiles, biomarkers that allow either the identification of patients at high risk for developing severe forms of COVID-19 and its long-term complications, or guide personalized treatment options, are scarce. The HERVCOV project aims to analyze the role of human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), known for their high pro-inflammatory potential, in the immunopathogenesis of COVID-19 and to identify and evaluate a set of biomarkers which will be important for the diagnosis, prognosis and follow-up of COVID-19 patients and their prioritization for targeted therapy. Recent data from the consortium has demonstrated that HERV-W envelope protein is highly expressed in lymphocytes of COVID-19 patients and correlates with inflammatory markers and respiratory outcome of the disease, strongly suggesting the role of HERVs in COVID-19 pathogenesis. The project aims to assess the biological pathways and functions that underlie the association of HERV expression and activation with severe COVID-19 forms and related complications. Biomarkers based on HERV pathogenic protein activation, SARS-CoV-2-specific immune responses, cytokine production and mandatory medical blood analyses for COVID-19 clinical monitoring will be studied in samples from different forms of COVID-19: acute, post- neuro- and long-COVID patients. Parameters will be determined that predict the clinical course of the disease and aggravation of SARS-CoV-2-induced symptoms and allow potential clustering of different bio-clinical profiles of COVID-19 patients. Diagnostic and prognostic panel(s) ?translated? from our fundamental research and subsequent evaluations of HERV-associated biomarkers will be assessed to define novel indicators in precision medicine-based therapeutic strategies, leading to individualized medical treatment in COVID-19.