Towards an Antibiotic Smart Sweden

Antibiotic Smart Sweden is a collaborative initiative aiming to inspire and motivate different actors in Swedish society to participate in efforts to address antibiotic resistance. Our vision is a society where everyone helps to keep antibiotics working and saving lives.

A drawing of a community with hospitals, schools etc.

Our collective misuse of antibiotics coupled with lack of preventive action has led to increasing levels of antibiotic resistance and difficult-to-treat bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance is a global threat to human and animal health. It also impacts our ability to meet several of the sustainability goals in Agenda 2030. A sustainable response to antibiotic resistance requires a whole-of-society effort - What we all do every day matters. This motivated the creation of Antibiotic Smart Sweden.

Antibiotic Smart Sweden engages different stakeholders to participate, exchange experiences and drive change together. We work towards three overarching goals: Antibiotic Smart People, Antibiotic Smart Municipalities & Regions, and National and International Collaboration.

We explore ways to involve individuals more actively through community engagement, participatory processes and insights about behaviours.
We support and promote engagement of Swedish regions and municipalities through the co-development and use of antibiotic-smart criteria. This structured approach helps integrate actions against antibiotic resistance in routines and everyday work.
We provide a platform for networking and the exchange of ideas among Swedish stakeholders with an interest in antibiotic resistance. We also exchange learnings with international actors through meetings, workshops and collaborations.

Three circles that illustrates that Antibiotic smart people and Antibiotic smart regions and municipalities and National and international collaboration are all connected

Our model is based on previous work in Sweden within the fields of antibiotic resistance and infection prevention and is informed by social innovation, implementation science and behavioural insights.

Antibiotic Smart Sweden is led by the Public Health Agency of Sweden, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Strama - the Strategic Program Against Antibiotic Resistance and ReAct – Action on Antibiotic Resistance, in collaboration with several Swedish municipalities and regions.

Antibiotic Smart Sweden is funded by the Swedish innovation agency Vinnova under the funding call ”Vision-driven health”. Vinnova finances and supports long-term, innovation environments that engage actors throughout society to collaborate to improve residents' health.

Learn about antibiotic smart more in this podcast: The AMR Studio (uac.uu.se)

Antibiotic Smart Sweden is an integral part of the multisectoral work in Sweden against antibiotic resistance.

Overview of Sweden’s one health response to antibiotic resistance (folkhalsomyndigheten.se)

Uppdaterad: 22 november 2022