Antimicrobial resistance

Research Scientist

Research Scientist

Senior Research Scientist, PhD

In mid-April, the three Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) on Water, Oceans and Antimicrobial Resistance announced the results from the AquaticPollutants Joint Transnational Call. NIVA are happy to be partner in two of the projects funded.

In the CORNELIA project, NIVA together with its two industrial partners tests and verifies innovative technical solutions for targeted removal of antimicrobial resistance from wastewater at hospitals (at the source) and at wastewater treatment plants (before discharge to the environment).

The goal of the DUWA project is to treat wastewater discharges from hospitals to minimize the spreading of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to the environment and to reduce the emission of micropollutants. NIVA assists the start-up company Sustaintech AS in the development and verification of ozonation to remove antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) in wastewater decentrally at a Norwegian hospital.

We need to improve our understanding of the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in surface waters, particularly downstream of urban waste water treatment plants. However, at present there is no European overview of the presence of AMR in surface waters. This project will develop a basic approach and methodology for a European scale AMR monitoring of surface waters.

The section conducts research on topics that contribute to sustainable development of cities and towns, and infrastructure. We study the problems, processes and solutions for handling drinking water, wastewater, and storm water in urban areas, in a changing climate.