CO-ADD took home the UK Antibiotic Guardian Award for Research on a global stage.

Last week, Public Health England hosted the first Antibiotic Guardian Awards championing organisations and individuals who had demonstrated achievement in tackling antimicrobial resistance at a local, regional and national level.

CO-ADD, based at The University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, received the winning prize for Research to support Antimicrobial Stewardship on a global stage. The open-access antibiotic discovery initiative was the only international nomination across all of the categories and was one of two shortlisted nominations for Research to support Antimicrobial Stewardship (shortlisted from 14 total applications). 

The awards evening in Birmingham Town Hall highlighted the continuous good work being carried out to support the key aims and goals of Antibiotic Guardian. The prestigious occasion was a great opportunity to reward organisation’s success whilst networking with peers and health professionals to share ideas on this global challenge.

Dr Diane Ashiru from Antibiotic Guardian welcomed the 100 guests and hosted the awards evening. The event was addressed by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor John Watson, who gave a keynote speech highlighting the crisis of global antibiotic resistance. Dr Ashiru and Professor Watson congratulated each award winner.

Dr Diane Ashiru-Oredope, Lead for the Antibiotic Guardian campaign, said:

“The Antibiotic Guardian awards are an excellent opportunity for us to champion organisations and individuals who have supported the Antibiotic Guardian campaign and demonstrated achievement in their work to tackle antimicrobial resistance, one of the biggest global public health threats we face.

“These awards have highlighted the wealth of fantastic work taking place across the country in combatting antimicrobial resistance. I’d like to personally congratulate all the nominees and winners for their contributions.

“At Public Health England we will continue to support and work with partners across the health system to improve antimicrobial prescribing and stewardship programmes.”

Go team us! We are the UK #antibioticguardian award winners #agawards for #antibiotic research! @UQ_News @IMBatUQ pic.twitter.com/6xpoNelYrP

— CO-ADD Antibiotics (@COADD_news) May 12, 2016

UK Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor John Watson presenting CO-ADD's Ruth Neale the Antibiotic Guardian Research Award for CO-ADD in Birmingham last week

 Other award categories and winners for the UK Antibiotic Guardian Awards in 2016:

• Collaborative stewardship activities
  • Winner- Calderdale CCG, Greater Huddersfield CCG, North Kirklees CCG, Wakefield CCG, Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire, Kirklees and Wakefield Council Infection
  • Highly Commended- Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust

• Community
  • Winner- Devon County Council, Northern Devon Healthcare Trust, New Devon CCG
  • Highly Commended- NHS North Kirklees CCG

• Innovation
  • Winner- Southern Derbyshire CCG
  • Highly Commended- Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust/ Imperial College London HPR

• Prescribing
  • Winner- Leicester City CCG Medicines Optimisation Team  
  • Highly Commended- NHS Nene CCG

• Research
  • Winner- Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery (CO-ADD) (The University of Queensland, Australia)

• Staff Engagement
  • Winner- University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
  • Highly Commended- Dudley Pharmaceutical Health Team, Dudley Office of Public Health, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council

• Stewardship
  • Winner- North of England Commissioning Unit
  • Highly Commended- Derby Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Make a pledge and become an Antibiotic Guardian today: http://antibioticguardian.com/