Training in HIV Prevention &Care Research in South Afr*

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Republic of South Africa currently has more HIV infections (4.7 million) than any country in the world, and is in need of more well-trained scientists to undertake the research required to maximize its response to the epidemic. We propose to establish a training program with the University of Pretoria (UP), the largest residential University in the country, which will foster multidisciplinary research in HIV prevention and care. The program will be undertaken by the Yale University Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) and the UP Centre for the Study of AIDS (CSA). It will provide long-term training for eight UP post-doctoral students in psychology, anthropology, medicine, and law and sustain them as research scientists in the field; identify and develop, through intermediate-term training at UP and Yale, a core group of faculty at UP who will be able to conceptualize and conduct HIV prevention and care research, and who will help mentor fellows participating in long-term training at Yale; and undertake five short-term training courses in specific areas of importance to researchers at UP in various disciplines. Re-entry grants will be provided to all UP long- and intermediate-term trainees at Yale. The activities of these trainees will be closely integrated with those of post-doctoral fellows supported through CIRA?s NIMH-supported Interdisciplinary HIV Prevention Training Program (the parent grant) and Fogarty International Center-supported AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP). Trainees will be carefully monitored during their training and tracked after they leave to assess the success of the program in enhancing expertise in HIV prevention and care research at UP. The proposed program has the full support of the Rector of the University of Pretoria and the Office of the Presidency, Republic of South Africa.