Farewell and thanks

Dear members

I am writing to express my thanks to all of your for your many contributions to NAMRIP and Global-NAMRIP, for participating so enthusiastically in our drive to generate multidisciplinary collaborations, for so wholeheartedly adopting our philosophy of being problem-solvers instead of solution-sellers, for trying so hard to nurture the seeds of basic research along the difficult path to generate societal good, for listening and entering into dialogue with those who experience those societal problems so that we can indeed formulate appropriate solutions, for being ruthlessly self-critical of our own beloved ideas and understanding that we must always listen carefully because we can learn lessons from unexpected quarters, and for embracing the humility that enables us to abandon the jargon of our speciality to better communicate with most of those with whom we should be having dialogue.

I very much welcome the multi-million-pound investment by the UK Government in new Antimicrobial Resistance networks, something for which I had advocated for many years, but sadly this spells the end of NAMRIP.

From the growth of NAMRIP in its first two years (funding research, starting new grants and spin-out companies, and in public and policymaker engagement, can be found in this brochure), to the later in later years as captured in our News pages), I am very proud of the work done by members, in the UK and overseas, and what has been achieved. Crucially, NAMRIP’s mission was not to simply fund research that goes no further than journal papers, or leads to further research grants, but was instead to deliver a real difference to health, public health, food and care sectors, and I was pleased at the translation of ideas NAMRIP provided the initial funding and support for, in the field of stents, bone grafts, diagnostics for better eye health and lateral flow testing, antibiotic stewardship in UK and China, wound healing, food safety and the interdependency between AMR and food retail, microfluidics, surgical instrument decontamination, the provision of clean water and community understanding of AMR. This is in addition to all the work done by NAMRIP members to help during the COVID-19 pandemic, the outreach we did, and the incredible collaborations we fostered during our visits to Africa in 2018 and 2019.

I wish the new UK AMR networks every success as they move forwards.

Timothy Leighton