In the 2024 updated Bacterial Priority Pathogen list of WHO, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) is a critical priority pathogen, emphasizing the urgent need for action. Rifampicin resistant-tuberculosis (Rr-TB) is estimated to cause 13% of antimicrobial resistance-attributable deaths globally and is driven by both ongoing resistance acquisition and person-to-person transmission. Bedaquiline (BDQ), a new drug, is strongly recommended for Rr-TB treatment since 2018. In this very short time, BDQ resistance has proliferated significantly. For Rr-TB at risk of/with BDQ resistance (BDQr/Rr-TB) there is no evidence-based regimen. The current practice, with continued failing regimens, imperils the potency of the remaining Rr-TB drug arsenal. Tuberculosis Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (TASP) aims to rapidly reduce bacillary load in patients at risk/with BDQr/Rr-TB by using an empirical highly bactericidal intensive phase (for those at risk) followed by drug-susceptibility testing (DST)-informed artificial intelligence (AI)-aided Treatment Recommender's regimen composition. 125 participants at risk/with BDQr/Rr-TB will be enrolled in Nigeria, Mozambique and South Africa. Baseline and acquired resistance will be monitored and a novel, fast and quantitative phenotypic method (thin layer agar), with little infrastructural requirements, will be evaluated in TASP’s high burden, limited resource settings through decentralized implementation. Additionally, TASP will improve environmental control with co-designed, portable air cleaners, built sourcing low-cost materials from the local market. Filter waste products will be used for resistance surveillance and compared to conventional bio-aerosol samplers. The anticipated impact of TASP is a cost-effective TB antimicrobial stewardship programme that reduces further resistance development and salvages the current all-oral BDQ regimens for the future.

The overarching objective of the SOCIAL is to contribute to global and national efforts in understanding and addressing the challenges associated with promoting democratization and good governance in authoritarian contexts. More specifically, SOCIAL is built around three interconnected goals: 1. To collect original empirical data and produce new theoretical and empirical insights on the interplay between law, society and governance in authoritarian regimes in the Central Asian context. The empirical findings will enable us to engage with and advance theoretical debates within (comparative) political regimes literature and authoritarian law/legality scholarship. 2. To create, develop and enhance the sustainability of doctoral training programmes focused on the study of authoritarian regimes. Our proposed programme will involve a variety of disciplines, sectors, fields and geographical regions. By doing this, we will equip doctoral candidates with a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between law, society, and governance in authoritarian regimes, which will be embedded in the novel theoretical and methodological approaches. 3. To engage with and contribute to the global democratization and good governance agenda by translating research findings into policy-relevant ways and providing strategic intelligence and policy insights for international organisations, development agencies, decision-makers, researchers and practitioners inside and outside the EU on ways to promote democratization and good governance in authoritarian contexts. These goals will be accomplished by designing and conducting interdisciplinary and multisectoral doctoral networks programme on the “sociology of authoritarian law” involving 17 doctoral candidates, each completing a PhD at one of the 14 leading universities in Europe and Canada that are part of the SOCIAL consortium.