Tennessee Center for AIDS Research (TN-CFAR)

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville TN

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Enter the text here that is the new abstract information for your application. This section must be no longer than 30 lines of text. Revised Abstract Section Overall Decades of HIV research have generated knowledge and tools with the potential to end the epidemic, but reality falls far short of this goal. The Tennessee Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) is located in the Southeastern United States, the region with the greatest number of new HIV acquisitions, and of persons living with HIV. The CFAR continues its four-way partnership between Vanderbilt University Medical Center (a research-intensive institution), Meharry Medical College (a burgeoning academic health sciences center), Tennessee Department of Health (an academically engaged state health department), and Nashville CARES (a sophisticated HIV community-based organization), all of which are located in Nashville. Leveraging complementary strengths of the partner institutions, the CFAR has had immense impact that includes 1) a remarkable expansion in the size and scope of the NIH-funded HIV research portfolio across the CFAR, 2) the successful career development of early-stage investigators such that many have advanced to leadership positions in the CFAR, and 3) considerable progress in community-engaged research that permeates the CFAR. Given the critical importance of community-engaged implementation science strategies to end the epidemic in both urban and rural areas, the CFAR will add an Implementation Science Core. The CFAR has also established a formal collaboration with the University of Memphis School of Public Health, located in Shelby County, which, in 2023, had the second-highest incidence of HIV among all metropolitan areas nationwide. This CFAR's vision is to have a transformative impact that spans from local to global. Guided by this vision, our mission is to coordinate institutional and community resources to develop evidence-based strategies that reduce the burden of HIV and can be scaled and disseminated to help end the epidemic. To fulfill our mission, The CFAR will pursue four specific aims: 1) To support multidisciplinary HIV research that leverages the highly collaborative local environment to build impactful team science among the partner institutions and beyond; 2) To nurture and support the career development of early-stage investigators to grow the next generation of HIV researchers; 3) To expand HIV research opportunities through increased collaborations across partner institutions and resources throughout the CFAR; and 4) To continue to grow a broad emphasis on HIV-focused community-engaged research that permeates the CFAR, strengthened by implementation science. The work of this CFAR aligns with NIH priorities for NIH/AIDS research.