Research into tackling healthcare-associated infection has received one of the largest single investments in the field in recent years.
Health Secretary Shona Robison announced £4.2 million for a consortium including the universities of St Andrews and Dundee to establish the new Scottish Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Institute.
Healthcare associated infections, such as C diff and MRSA, cost £183 million a year and affect 5% of hospital patients.
The institute’s role will be to develop methods of preventing infection spread and research more effective use of existing antibiotics.
It will also develop new genome-based diagnostic tools to identify existing and new types of infection and develop new models for identifying patients more prone to infection or more likely to die as a result.
Over the next five years the institute will establish a virtual hub allowing investigators from six Scottish universities to work with health boards and other partners.
Ms Robison said: “We are committed in our drive to tackling and reducing the spread of healthcare- associated infections.
“In recent years we have made significant progress in making our hospitals safer, with cases of C diff and MRSA falling in 2014 to among their lowest levels on record.”
Professor Stephen Gillespie, of St Andrews University, said: “With this project we will be exploring new ways to use the latest technology to deliver more rapid diagnosis, and a safer health service to the people of Scotland.”