Grant: Planning Grants - PA: HIV/AIDS-CBR (General and Aboriginal streams)

Although heterosexual men living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are increasing in number, there has been a lack of engagement with this community by HIV researchers and policy makers. Consequently, these men remain continuously underrepresented in many decision-making processes and community-based research activities. The main purpose of this project is to assemble a research collaborative of heterosexual men living with HIV, policy makers, representatives from AIDS service organizations (ASOs) and academic researchers in order to develop a research and policy agenda that is specific to the needs of this demographic. A community advisory board (CAB) of five heterosexual men living with HIV has been involved in preliminary planning, and will be involved in the data generation, thematic analysis and presentation of findings from the summit to stakeholders and academics. In this manner, the CAB and summit participants will adopt multiple roles in the pyramid of involvement outlined in the Greater Involvement of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS statement, including 'experts', 'speakers' and 'decision-makers'. Therefore, the planning and execution of the meeting is notable for its significant degree of input by members of the target community, and represents a commitment on the part of the research team to build further research capacity in partnership with this group. To our knowledge, our work with heterosexual men living with HIV represents the first concerted attempt to build research capacity with this group. The contribution made by our proposal is therefore novel and will produce community-generated information that is highly relevant for decision makers, community workers and clinicians working with HIV-infected heterosexual men living with HIV.