PACE launches its third funding round today, supporting innovative projects that tackle resistant bacterial infections posing the greatest threat to global health
October 1, 2025 – Biotechnology, Clinical Trials, Drug Discovery, Other, Pharmaceutical – AMR, GAMRIC 2025, LifeArc, Medicines Discovery Catapult, PACE, WHO, funding
1 October 2025 — Alderley Park, UK — To stay ahead of the escalating antibiotic resistance crisis, we need bold thinking and transformative innovation. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 80% of recently approved bacterial antimicrobial agents show similarities to existing drug classes, meaning their potential is limited as resistance mechanisms to these classes already exist. Without significant action and pipeline diversification, it is expected that by 2050, bacterial AMR will be associated with more than eight million deaths per year and could cost the world $100 trillion.
In its latest funding round, Pathways to Antimicrobial Clinical Efficacy (PACE), one of the UK’s largest public-private initiatives targeting early-stage antimicrobial drug and diagnostic development, is seeking truly innovative therapeutic projects that focus on bacterial infections with the highest AMR burden and unmet need as defined by the WHO. These include lower respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections and bloodstream infections. AMR is making these infections increasingly harder to treat, often leading to unresolved or recurrent infections and an increased risk of sepsis, which can be fatal.
Announced today at the inaugural Global AMR Innovators’ Conference (GAMRIC) in London, the funding is part of a broader £30 million investment from PACE, a collaboration between Innovate UK, LifeArc, and Medicines Discovery Catapult, to accelerate solutions for global AMR challenges. The latest funding round will provide up to £6 million to support up to eight promising early-stage, antibacterial therapeutics and will prioritise those that work in novel ways, target new mechanisms, and have the potential to treat infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria.
Successful applicants will receive a tailored package of funding and wraparound support, including strategic guidance to identify the right progression pathway for their AMR asset as well as access to key resources and sector connections. This will enable early-stage ideas to progress with greater speed and confidence towards onward investment and clinical adoption so that they reach the people who urgently need them. Projects are expected to last up to two years, with a maximum of £1 million available per project. AMR innovators worldwide are encouraged to apply.
Initiatives like PACE, which expand, diversify, and nurture the antibacterial R&D pipeline, are critical to our ability to tackle AMR and safeguard global health into the future.
Commenting on today’s announcement from PACE, Professor Dame Sally Davies, UK Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance, said: “Antimicrobial resistance is not a distant threat – it is here and demands urgent action. Without effective antibiotics, modern medicine as we know it will falter. Routine procedures will become dangerous, our economies will feel the strain, and more lives will be lost. That is why initiatives like PACE are so important. By strengthening the pipeline of new antibiotics and diagnostics, PACE gives us the precision tools we need to stay ahead of this crisis. This latest round of funding is a crucial investment in translational science and scientists, whose work is essential to safeguarding health and protecting future generations from drug-resistant infections.”
Lord Jim O’Neill, Economist and former Chair of the UK Government’s Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, added: “Antimicrobial resistance is not just a health problem—it’s an economic time bomb. If we allow antibiotics to lose their effectiveness, the cost will be staggering: higher healthcare bills, reduced productivity, and millions of lives cut short. That’s why we need new solutions, and why initiatives like PACE are so important. By supporting precision medicine in antimicrobials, PACE is ensuring the pipeline doesn’t run dry. This funding round is another step toward creating the incentives and investment we need to get ahead of drug resistance, protect patients, and safeguard the global economy.”
Dr Beverley Isherwood, PACE Programme Director, said: “Developing new antimicrobial drugs is hugely complex and challenging. Through PACE, we’re offering vital funding and collaborative support to innovators working to tackle AMR, helping them move promising ideas toward the clinic and to the patients who urgently need them. This latest funding round builds on our existing portfolio and the appetite we saw from the AMR community in our previous funding rounds. It reflects our commitment to support the most innovative global research in AMR, and we’re excited that we can now support even more pioneering projects that have the potential to save lives and protect future generations from drug-resistant infections.”
Awardees of the first PACE funding round also shared their thoughts on the impact of PACE support and funding:
Dr Paul Finn, Chief Scientific Officer, Oxford Drug Design, said: “PACE is providing crucial support to tackle the antimicrobial resistance crisis in today’s funding environment. Providing access to enabling capabilities, such as the UKHSA’s bacterial strain panels, in addition to financial support, helps us deliver results quickly and accelerate progress.”
Dr Alistair Farley, Scientific Lead, Ineos Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Research, said: “In addition to funding, PACE support includes a network of R&D advisors and delivery partners with experience throughout the drug development stages. Advice and guidance from experts in biotech and academia are invaluable, as drug discovery teams are typically small and may not have all the necessary expertise in-house. The PACE program enables us to progress our series towards preclinical development and provides critical funding and space for innovation.”
Dr Bruno Santos, Chief Executive Officer, Immunethep, said: “With PACE’s support, Immunethep is developing monoclonal antibodies to address antimicrobial resistance. Together, we’re advancing therapies that can reshape infectious disease treatment and inspire bold innovation.”
How to Apply
To submit an expression of interest, visit https://tinyurl.com/4hpvp5r2. For more information about the funding round and to sign up for an informational webinar at 15:00 (BST) on 8 October, visit https://paceamr.org.uk/funding/. The deadline for expressions of interest is 23:59 GMT on Wednesday, 5 November 2025.
About PACE
PACE (Pathways to Antimicrobial Clinical Efficacy) is a £30 million initiative supporting early-stage innovation in medicines and diagnostics to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and save lives. It is a collaboration between Innovate UK, LifeArc, and Medicines Discovery Catapult – three leaders in the UK’s health innovation and research community with unique expertise harnessed by catalysing and working with the global AMR community to accelerate the speed of innovation to mitigate the risk of AMR. PACE brings together the right combination of funding, resources, insights, and partnerships to help innovators progress their early-stage antimicrobial drug and diagnostics projects with greater speed, support and confidence – giving the best AMR innovations the greatest chance of success. As one of the UK’s largest public-private initiatives targeting early-stage antimicrobial drug and diagnostic discovery, PACE selects, invests in and supports projects that address the world’s most threatening pathogens. It delivers innovations for onward development and investment, moving them closer to clinical trials and, critically, contributing to better patient outcomes. PACE means progress. By tackling AMR collectively, the early translational science community is supported to deliver the innovations needed to help save lives. PACE’s first funding round launched in October 2023. £10 million was allocated to 11 projects focused on developing novel treatments for the most threatening bacterial pathogens and resistance mechanisms. This funding round attracted 171 expressions of interest from 34 countries, with 40% from the UK. A second funding round, launched in September 2024, provided a £5 million boost to drive innovation in AMR diagnostics. The diagnostics call received 177 applications from 37 countries, and the portfolio of awardees will beannounced later in 2025. Visit: paceamr.org.uk.
About the PACE Partners
About LifeArc
LifeArc is a not-for-profit medical research organisation that turns promising scientific research into impact for people living with rare diseases and in resistant infections that pose a threat to global health. We form partnerships and provide scientific expertise and funding to help break down the barriers preventing scientific breakthroughs from becoming life-transforming treatments and cures. We have been doing this for more than 30 years and our work has resulted in five licensed medicines, including cancer drug pembrolizumab and lecanemab for Alzheimer’s disease. Our goal is a world where no one with a rare disease or a global infectious disease misses out on life-changing innovation because of complexity, cost or risk. Find out more at www.lifearc.org.
About Innovate UK
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is the UK’s innovation agency. It works to create a better future by inspiring, involving and investing in businesses developing life-changing innovations. Its mission is to help companies to grow through their development and commercialisation of new products, processes and services, supported by an outstanding innovation ecosystem that is agile, inclusive and easy to navigate. Tackling infections is one of UKRI’s strategic themes. It will bolster our national defence and response capabilities by tackling infectious diseases that pose threats to people, livestock, crops and natural resources in more integrated and innovative ways. It aims to better prepare for future disease epidemics and more effectively tackle the slow-moving pandemic of antimicrobial resistance. More information: https://www.ukri.org/councils/innovate-uk/
About Medicines Discovery Catapult
MDC is a national Life Sciences service dedicated to turning drug discovery into commercial breakthroughs. At the frontier of drug discovery, MDC works with entrepreneurial scientists to make every move count. It validates their ideas, de-risks investments, and feeds insights back into the sector to drive productivity and impact. MDC creates momentum through its unique blend of discovery expertise, technology, insights, and sector-leading partnerships. Where there is unmet patient need, MDC stimulates innovation through its National Programmes. MDC has worked with over 300 organisations, who have gone on to raise more than £1.53bn of R&D investment. Its approach to drug discovery drives game-changing breakthroughs and improves patients’ lives. MDC is part of the Innovate UK Catapult Network and based in Alderley Park, Cheshire. For more information, visit https://md.catapult.org.uk/.
