Fleming Fund

Overview

The Fleming Fund is a UK aid program to support low- and middle-income countries to undertake surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to inform action. The Fleming Fund Fellowship Scheme is one of the programs under the Fleming Fund initiative and supports the professional development of technical experts to strengthen AMR or antimicrobial consumption and use (AMC/AMU) surveillance and policy.

The Fellowships are based in national institutions including national reference laboratories, hospitals, and government agencies. The Fellowships are delivered through a model of mentorship and on-the-job training, collaborative projects and intensive workshops, to support implementation of National AMR Action Plans, using a One Health approach.

The Doherty Institute’s WHO Collaborating Centre for AMR and the University of Melbourne’s Asia-Pacific Centre for Animal Health have a large international capacity building, training and implementation program to support prevention and surveillance of AMR across five countries in the Asia-Pacific region - Bhutan, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, and Pakistan. As a Host Institution, the Centres will be host to more than 100 Fellows, with over half of them already completed in the first phase (2019 - 2023).

Summary of Phase I Fellowships

53 Fellowships have been completed to date across the five countries. There has been a significant impact on the Fellows’ professional skillset, including:

• Being better equipped to develop and implement AMU/AMS programs​
• Having an increased depth of knowledge in understanding in microbiology, AMR Surveillance, Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing across human and animal health settings ​
• Developed leadership, communication and data analysis skills
• Participating in international engagement opportunities and regional communities of practice and networking ​
• Being better placed to create and implement policies and engage with stakeholders at both the local and provincial levels​
• Becoming local champions on AMR at the Beneficiary Institutions 

Overview of the Phase II Fellowships

Phase II of the Fellowships commenced in 2024, with 8 professional Fellowships and 2 policy Fellowships in Timor-Leste, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Nepal, and Bhutan. Fellows are supported for a period of approximately 18 months to build their technical and leadership skills through mentorship, specialised training and participation in collaborative projects.

Professional Fellowships

The aim of these Fellowships is to improve the Fellows’ ability to generate and use AMR/AMU and AMC data, improve data analysis and interpretation, strengthen One Health collaboration and support the dissemination of skills within their workplaces.

The Professional Fellowships are working across the Human Health, Animal Health, Food Laboratory, and Environmental Health sectors. Professional Fellows will seek to achieve these main objectives:

• Enhance knowledge of AMR and its economic and social impact Improve the ability of Fellows to generate and use country-level data on AMR
• Improve the use and interpretation of AMR and AMU data, including for practice and policymaking
• Improve the dissemination of relevant knowledge and skills in Beneficiary Institutions and more widely
• Strengthen One Health collaboration.

Policy Fellowships

These Fellowships are designed to strengthen national leadership in evidence-based policy development, advocacy and One Health collaboration. The programme supports national AMR governance, helps raise awareness within national governments about AMR issues and translates data and evidence into policy recommendations.

The Policy Fellowships are embedded in government agencies, including Ministries of Health and Agriculture. Policy Fellows will seek to:

• Advocate for AMR as a global health priority, strengthen national AMR leadership and governance within a One Health framework
• Work collaboratively with key stakeholders to support the production and analysis of quality AMR data, aiming to improve evidence-based decision making and policy development
• Enable sustainable AMR workforce development and system strengthening

Key Themes of Fellowships

Laboratory Fellowships

The Fleming Fund Fellowships provide training and mentorship to strengthen laboratory capacity and capability to support the production of quality data. Key areas of development include understanding of the role of microbiology laboratories, strengthening laboratory diagnosis and data interpretation, improving quality control, promoting diagnostic stewardship, and contributing to sustainable capacity development and skills transfer.

Surveillance Fellowships

The objective is to strengthen capabilities in AMR Surveillance strategy and protocol development. The Fellowships will focus on improving skills in collecting, analysing and interpreting robust scientific data, along with competency in management and maintenance of AMR surveillance systems, developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and contributing to global surveillance via the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS).

Antimicrobial Use and Consumption Fellowships

Improving surveillance and reporting of antimicrobial use (AMU) and antimicrobial consumption (AMC) is a key objective of the Doherty Institute’s Fleming Fund Fellowship training and mentoring program. Key areas of development include the analysis and interpretation of AMU and AMC data, developing evidence-based approaches to improving the use of antimicrobials and leadership and communication skills to advocate for changes to AMU practices.

Policy and advocacy fellowships

The Fleming Fund support a cohort of policy fellows to advance the integration of AMR and AMU policy across sectors, including support for national AMR coordination committees, advocacy and awareness raising with key stakeholders across governments and sectors, development of policy and assistance with building communities of practice. Phase II Fellowships will further focus on strengthening governance around AMR surveillance, advocating for One Health focused policy making and driving the implementation of National Action Plans and AMR/AMU policy documents.

AMR Policy Health Economics Fellowships have been introduced in some of the countries, which will aim to improve skills in conducting various types of economic evaluation studies, analysing the data to inform policy making and further play a role in developing sustainable communities of practice.

Policy fellows work closely with other Fleming Fund Fellows to integrate developments across AMR and AMU surveillance into a national system or approach and support the development of meaningful reporting and interpretation of AMR data to contribute to public health action.