William Calero-Cáceres

Funding Sources : Upon returning to Ecuador, I received institutional support from the Universidad Técnica de Ambato (UTA), where I serve as professor and researcher. I established my independent research group focused on microbiology, antimicrobial resistance, and genomics.

To build research capacity, I secured funding from the Fondo I+D+i Universidades IDi (CEDIA Ecuador), which enabled the development of phage and AMR-related projects. I also received a UNU-Biolac fellowship (United Nations University), which supported hands-on training and infrastructure setup for implementing Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing in my laboratory.

International collaborations were pivotal in my transition. I received:

Technical and research collaboration from the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) and the University of Barcelona,

Participation in sewage-based surveillance and metagenomic analysis as part of the Global Sewage Surveillance Project coordinated by the National Food Institute at DTU (Denmark),

An ongoing collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which provides bacterial whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data to support capacity-building in genomic analysis at our institution, and

Capacity-building and funding from SORT IT (Structured Operational Research Training Initiative, WHO), which enhanced my operational public health research skills and supported the acquisition of essential laboratory materials.

These combined efforts have enabled me to establish a multidisciplinary research platform that leverages genomic tools to address antimicrobial resistance and public health challenges in Latin America.