in grants for research on AIDS
The Yale Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) has received two grants totaling over $12 million that will allow it to expand its efforts both locally and around the world.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded the center a five-year, $10.7 million grant to add three new research cores and expand the functions of existing cores.
In addition, the Fogarty International Center gave CIRA a five-year, $1.5 million award to establish an HIV research and training collaboration with the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
The NIMH grant "will allow us to provide a range of services in support of the many different HIV prevention research projects affiliated with CIRA, such as supporting research design and statistical analysis, and developing community-based research," says Kim Blankenship, associate director of CIRA and associate research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (EPH) at the School of Medicine.
CIRA's mission is to support research aimed at preventing HIV infection and reducing the negative consequences of HIV disease in vulnerable and underserved populations. The center includes researchers from such varied disciplines as public health, psychology, law, nursing, biology and management. CIRA's research partners also include the Hispanic Health Council and the Institute for Community Research in Hartford.
The NIMH grant will provide some support to community-based organizations interested in conducting research through a Community Research Partnership Program. It will help build the research capacity of local organizations, while also ensuring that CIRA's research reflects the needs and concerns of the community. A new international research core will foster the development of international research and provide support to several international training programs.
Through the pilot project mechanism of CIRA's Development Core, the center will award small grants to stimulate new research, and convene groups of potential collaborators to work together to respond to grant announcements. CIRA will help with grant preparation in a number of ways, such as providing assistance in developing budgets and preparing other necessary materials, and by conducting literature reviews and convening peer review sessions. The grant will also fund various seminars, conferences and other events that will be open to the public, including an annual AIDS Science Day scheduled for April 12.
The principal investigator on the grant and director of CIRA is Dr. Michael Merson, dean of public health and chair of EPH. CIRA's deputy director is Peter Salovey, professor and chair of psychology and a professor in EPH.
The Fogarty grant -- titled the International Clinical, Operational and Health Services Research and Training Award (ICOHRTA) -- is an innovative program to support integrated multidisciplinary, clinical, operational and health services research and training collaborations between U.S. institutions and those in developing countries, as well as those in emerging democracies of Eastern Europe, Russia and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union.
The ICOHRTA grant will allow the center to bring postdoctoral and junior faculty-level fellows from the University of Pretoria to Yale to work with mentors and develop research projects that they will then conduct in South Africa. The University of Pretoria fellows will come from faculties of law, including human rights; medicine; and humanities, including the social sciences. CIRA will also send Yale faculty to South Africa for up to three months to participate in training of South African researchers and more intensive mentoring on specific research projects. The award will also support the launching of pilot project research in South Africa.
An estimated 4.7 million people, or one in four adults, are currently living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. This number is higher than in any other country and is expected to double over the next decade.
"The extent of the epidemic in South Africa is staggering and presents many challenges," says Blankenship. "The ICOHRTA can help us address these challenges by establishing an institutional relationship that we hope to build on over time. It is intended to strengthen the research capacity of South African institutions and investigators and encourage the development of research collaboration between Yale and the University of Pretoria."
-- By Karen Peart
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