Grant: Team Grant: HIV/AIDS Vaccine Discovery and Social Research

The CHVI Team in Social and Behavioral Research on HIV Vaccines will launch an expert interdisciplinary social science team in Canada, India and South Africa that will apply rigorous and innovative social research to accelerate the development and dissemination of safe, effective and accessible HIV vaccines. The Team research program addresses key challenges in ensuring fully informed consent among HIV vaccine trial participants; and in engaging the preferences and concerns of vulnerable community end users throughout HIV vaccine development in order to bridge the science-to-practice gap. Each year of delay in the development and uptake of HIV vaccines results in up to 2 million new HIV infections, 2,500 in Canada alone, which might otherwise have been averted. The CHVI Team will make a significant contribution to training the next generation of HIV vaccine social and behavioral researchers in Canada, and in South-South partnerships and traineeships in India and South Africa, the two countries with the highest numbers of persons living with HIV in the world.