A new CAMO-Net publication has captured the impact of a major training and capacity strengthening programme that supported researchers across 13 institutions in 11 countries.
Published in Wellcome Open Research, the article describes how CAMO-Net’s Training and Capacity Strengthening Programme was developed and implemented between April 2024 and March 2026. Led by the Central Training Hub at the Infectious Diseases Institute, Makerere University, the programme was designed to strengthen antimicrobial resistance research capacity at individual, institutional and network levels.
Over two years, the programme awarded 66 grants to researchers at different career stages across the CAMO-Net network. This included 37 travel grants, 16 offsite placements and 13 nine-month fellowships. Most awardees were early-career researchers, reflecting CAMO-Net’s commitment to supporting the next generation of AMR scientists and practitioners.
The programme enabled researchers to present their work at international conferences, undertake hands-on training at partner institutions, develop new technical skills, and build collaborations across countries and disciplines. It also helped researchers turn learning into practice, with fellows implementing context-specific quality improvement projects at their own sites.
Ellon Twinomuhwezi, who coordinated the programme at the Infectious Diseases Institute, said:
“This programme has shown what is possible when capacity strengthening is designed around people, relationships and real-world research needs. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see researchers across CAMO-Net build new skills, share expertise and form collaborations that will continue beyond the life of the programme. For me, its greatest success isn’t just the number of grants awarded, but the connections and research collaborations it has created across CAMO-Net.”
The publication highlights the scale of activity generated through the programme. Across the network, awardees and collaborators contributed to 59 knowledge-exchange events, including thematic seminars, needs-based sessions, global workshops and peer engagement seminars. By March 2026, the programme had also supported 17 peer-reviewed publications, 22 blogs, 26 conference presentations and two technical highlights.
For CAMO-Net, the programme has been one of the clearest examples of what equitable global collaboration can achieve when investment is directed towards people, skills and long-term relationships. It strengthened South-South and North-South collaboration, supported shared learning across resource-diverse settings, and created new links between researchers working on antimicrobial optimisation in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
The article also sets out important lessons for future capacity strengthening programmes. These include the value of strong governance, digitally enabled mentorship, flexible funding models, infrastructure readiness, and competency-based evaluation. Rather than measuring success only through attendance or participation, the programme focused on whether researchers developed skills, produced outputs and applied their learning in ways that could benefit their own institutions and health systems.
As the programme comes to an end, its impact is visible across CAMO-Net. The relationships, skills, publications and collaborations it supported will continue to shape the network’s research and its contribution to the global AMR response.
The success of the Training and Capacity Strengthening Programme is a reminder that antimicrobial optimisation depends on more than medicines, diagnostics or data. It depends on skilled researchers, strong institutions and trusted international partnerships. Through this programme, CAMO-Net has shown how those foundations can be built – and why they matter.
You can read the publication here and also find out more information about the Training and Capacity Strengthening Programme on CAMO-Net’s website here.
