Projects

In 2026 NordicAST launches NordicAST Project Grants to support studies initiated and conducted by employees in Nordic clinical microbiology laboratories which are not initiated or led by NordicAST committee members. NordicAST provides both scientific and financial support for these studies. See NordicAST Project Grants SOP for further information on the application process.

Project	Start / Status	Information	Contact person(s)	Publications (posters and papers)
The NordicAST 2023 LRE-TRE study	2023 Data analysis ongoing	Presentation planned for NordicAST Workshop, 28-29th May 2024, Malmö	Arnfinn Sundsfjord	Performance of EUCAST disk diffusion and supplementary methods to detect reduced susceptibility to linezolid in enterococci. The NordicAST LRE-study. Haldorsen BC, Augustinussen MH, Matuschek E, Småbrekke L, Skjold F, Hegstad J, Holzknecht BJ, Helgason KO, Ilmavirta H, Kahlmeter G, Sundsfjord A, Hegstad Kon behalf of the NordicAST 2023 LRE-TRE Study Group. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2026;81:dkag174. doi: 10.1093/jac/dkag174. Performance of disk diffusion and MIC gradient tests in tigecycline susceptibility testing of enterococci: A Nordic multicentre study. Mathiesen I, Haldorsen BC, Småbrekke L, Matuschek E, Skjold F, Holzknecht BJ, Helgason KO, Ilmavirta H, Kahlmeter G, Sundsfjord A, Hegstad Kon behalf of the NordicAST 2023 LRE-TRE Study Group. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 2026 Jun 4. doi: 10.1007/s10096-026-05557-7.
NordicAST Bacteroides AST Study	2018 Finished	Invitation Workshop 2018	Arnfinn Sundsfjord	Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Bacteroides species by disk diffusion: The NordicAST Bacteroides study Tore Taksdal Stubhaug, Christian G Giske, Ulrik S Justesen, Gunnar Kahlmeter, Erika Matuschek, Arnfinn Sundsfjord, Dagfinn Skaare; Nordic Bacteroides AST Study Group. Anaerobe. 2023 May 28;81:102743. doi: 10.1016/j.anaerobe.2023.102743
NordicAST/ EUCAST RAST Multi-laboratory study	2017 Finished	Workshop 2018	Erika Matuschek	EUCAST rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing (RAST) in blood cultures: validation in 55 European laboratories Anna Åkerlund, Emma Jonasson, Erika Matuschek, Lena Serrander, Martin Sundqvist, Gunnar Kahlmeter; RAST Study Group. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2020 Nov 1;75(11):3230-3238. doi: 10.1093/jac/dkaa333.
NordicAST Multi-centre Study on Automated AST	2016 Finished	Workshop 2017	Erika Matuschek / Christian G. Giske	Performance of automated antimicrobial susceptibility testing for the detection of antimicrobial resistance in gram-negative bacteria: a NordicAST study. Truls M. Leegaard, Ulrik S. Justesen, Erika Matuschek, Christian G. Giske, on behalf of the NordicAST study group on automated AST. APMIS. 2023 Aug 17. doi: 10.1111/apm.13346
NordicAST CPE Study	2016 Finished	Workshop 2017 Workshop 2016	Christian G. Giske	Performance of the EUCAST disc diffusion method and two MIC methods in detection of Enterobacteriaceae with reduced susceptibility to meropenem: the NordicAST CPE study. Haldorsen B, Giske CG, Hansen DS, Helgason KO, Kahlmeter G, Löhr IH, Matuschek E, Österblad M, Rantakokko-Jalava K, Wang M, Småbrekke L, Samuelsen Ø, Sundsfjord A; NordicAST CPE Study Group. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2018 Oct 1. doi: 10.1093/jac/dky276.
NordicAST VRE Detection Study	2012 Finished	Workshop 2014 Workshop 2012	Christian G. Giske	Performance of the EUCAST disk diffusion method, the CLSI agar screen method, and the Vitek 2 automated antimicrobial susceptibility testing system for detection of clinical isolates of Enterococci with low- and medium-level VanB-type vancomycin resistance: a multicenter study. Hegstad K, Giske CG, Haldorsen B, Matuschek E, Schønning K, Leegaard TM, Kahlmeter G, Sundsfjord A; NordicAST VRE Detection Study Group. J Clin Microbiol. 2014 May;52(5):1582-9. doi: 10.1128/JCM.03544-13.

Standard operating procedure: NordicAST projects

As stated in the bylaws, NordicAST’s objectives include initiating, conducting and funding scientific studies on methodological issues.

The term “NordicAST project” denotes a scientific study or project initiated, funded, organized, conducted and/or promoted by NordicAST.

This document describes the standard operating procedure for proposing, approving, organizing, conducting and publishing data from NordicAST projects.