Norwegian Research School in Infection Biology and Antimicrobials (IBA)

Infectious diseases rank among the significant causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Through multidisciplinary efforts, where one combines efforts to focus on both the microbe and the host, one can achieve better understanding regarding infectious diseases processes to prevent and control diseases. This rapidly developing research area, termed infection biology, has been driven by the need to develop new approaches to studying infectious diseases, where the final goal is to improve global health. While attention has been primarily focused on pathogenic interactions, many interactions between host and microbes are now recognized as being beneficial rather than detrimental. Thus, knowledge derived from these efforts may both promote health and prevent disease. In addition, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses increasing problems in controlling and preventing disease, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) considers AMR one of the three most significant threats to human health. This underlies the importance of better understanding infectious diseases and how we can improve global health.

Infectious diseases continue to rank among the significant causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. There is thus an obvious need to strengthen national recruitment and quality for promoting research on infection biology and antimicrobials in Norway. This task wa particularly challenging as infection biology involves several disciplines that are highly focused and not always integrative. Besides these intellectual barriers, there are both institutional and geographic hindrances. IBA provided research - based training and education enabling PhD students to develop into internationally competitive, productive, and creative researchers. IBA served as well as a national program in infection biology to drive international contribution and exchange. These efforts involved the creation and execution of state-of-the-art courses on relevant disciplines: principles of infection biology, bacteriology, virology, vaccinology, immunology, cell biology, chemistry etc. IBA further provided guidance and training in so-called soft skills relevant to scientific development such as data management, scientific writing, scientific illustration, research design, career development, and stress management. In addition, IBA strived to create opportunities for network building among trainees at an early stage of their research career. IBA also provided financial (travel and accommodation) support for students to carry out research activities at both Norwegian and international laboratories. Those forays have in many instances provided the basis for new collaborations across groups as well as strengthening ongoing interactions. In the short term, it is fair to say that IBA has played a significant role in remediating some of the gaps in higher education and basic science related to infection biology in Norway.

The driving force of the IBA proposal is that more knowledge of the host - microbe interactions at the molecular level is needed. At the same time, we need to gain a better understanding of microbial physiology and metabolisms to identify new drug targets. The aim of IBA is thus to strengthen the national recruitment base and quality for promoting research on infection biology and antimicrobials related to health and disease. A particularly important objective of this doctoral programme is to strengthen domestic and international networking in the subject area. By a concerted joint effort at the national level, the proposed programme will include basic and clinical research in a number of research areas and directions in accordance with the call for proposals issued by the Norwegian Research Council. PhD students and postdoctoral scholars working in different areas of infection biology research will be welcome to participate. Taken together, the main aims are to 1) provide research - based training and education enabling PhD students to develop into internationally competitive, productive, and creative researchers able to address the needs of the Norwegian community and 2) establish a vibrant, successful national program in infection biology that will drive (create, foster) international exchange and cooperation. Strategically, the latter is particularly important as the relevant Norwegian scientific communities currently have no established forum or venue through which to network with other national programs and related funding calls in Europe. Towrads this end, IBA will provide 1)lecture courses on topics of general relevance, 2) advanced training courses on specific methodologies and technologies, 3) workshops on specific topics of import, 4) an annual meeting, student-organized research retreats and national networking platforms, and 5) national and international research internships in relevant research laboratories