PREVENT IT OUTCOMES
Intending to produce a strong impact in the prevention and risk management of antibiotic resistance, the PREVENT IT project is developing multiple initiatives to improve the state of the art of Indian society. Through the launch of innovative learning courses, the organization of public events, and the launch of an awareness social media campaigns, the main purpose of the project is to generate a common conscience on antibiotic resistance in the Indian academic and societal environments. The goal is to involve and engage different stakeholders providing scientific information related to the impact of antibiotics resistance (ABR) on Indian society.
PREVENT IT CURRICULA
In the framework of established cooperation between Indian and European partners, the project developed an inclusive and innovative curriculum disseminating specific ABR prevention and risk management skills. The courses created and introduced in the framework of the PREVENT IT project have been permanently included in the academic study plan of several Indian universities, creating skills and awareness among students and key societal players. To meet the requirements of each study program involved, the courses introduced are divided into differentiated modules based on the needs of the Indian students. 42 new/revised courses have been included in 29 accredited study programs at the Indian HEIs. The learning activities positively impacted the knowledge and attitude of around 3000 Indian higher education students.
PREVENT IT PUBLIC EVENTS
With the engagement of Indian and European experts from multiple academic and non-academic organizations, the PREVENT IT project regularly organized events to live-debate, exchange opinions and webinars over the best strategies to tackle ABR in India. The events were hosted at Indian universities and civil society organizations. During the last year of the project, at the PREVENT IT international conference, the Indo-European One Health Association was officially launched and presented to the scientific community. The Association will primarily act as an incubator for the new Indo-European initiatives contributing to the global fight against antimicrobial resistance. A total of 53 public events were conducted, including webinars, dissemination events, workshops, and seminars. The PREVENT IT public events have engaged more than 16000 people from different professional areas and socio-economic backgrounds.
PREVENT IT ONLINE COURSES
To enlarge the target audience, PREVENT IT successfully launched 4 open online courses. Taking interdisciplinarity as a pedagogical best practice, the online courses are delivered by professionals from different health branches, united by the will to offer a different and complementary perspective on the prevention and risk management of ABR in Indian society. Apart from these, Manipal Academy of Higher Education has introduced one open-elective certificate course. Around 20 students/staff were trained to develop the high-impact online course independently. So far, the e-courses have been successfully concluded by 100 users and the number will keep on growing.
PREVENT IT AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
The ultimate goal of the project is to spread awareness over the impact of ABR to as many people as possible. With this in mind, the PREVENT IT awareness campaign has been launched on social media to inform Indian society about the ABR causes and the possible solutions that everyone can implement to mitigate the adverse impact of antibiotic resistance. The PREVENT IT campaign aims to tackle the contemporary lack of societal awareness regarding the negative societal and economic consequences that the world will face if no concrete actions will be taken. Launched on social media and broadcasted in hospitals, the awareness campaign has significantly expanded the project outreach. So far, the animated videos on the prevention and risk management of ABR have outreach more than 6.3 million people.
PREVENT IT PUBLICATIONS
No research is complete without value-adding publications. The project has come forward with some high-impact publications in the field of ABR. They are the result of the contribution and involvement of multiple stakeholders in the European-Indian scientific society in developing consolidated soft skills tackling antibiotics resistance and disseminating knowledge teaching ABR at Indian HEIs. As PREVENT IT milestones, the consortium has published the book “Antimicrobial Resistance: Collaborative Measures of Control” with the international publishing house Taylor & Francis. The 15 chapters of the textbook address universities interested in disseminating the key intellectual outputs of the PREVENT IT curricula. In addition, 19 scientific articles, 20 dissertations and 11 informative newsletters were published as a direct output of the project activities.
PREVENT IT TRAININGS
To ensure the sustainable impact of the project, training our future generations is highly imperative. To achieve this objective, multiple training programmes were introduced under the project, focusing on both the staff members working at partner HEIs and the young talents across India and Europe. Three intra-consortium empowerment camps were conducted to train the academic and administrative staff of the PREVENT IT consortium. These activities were followed by (i) the empowerment of young talents hired as PREVENT IT Associate Researchers at the Indian HEIs; (ii) individual training mobility of Indian staff/students at the European HEIs; (iii) Staff development program organized at the premises of the Indian HEIs. In the framework of these activities, 768 people were empowered including around 60 staff members and 700 students were empowered. The trainings were conducted by all the partner universities (in both online and offline mode) as per their expertise.
