Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

The 2019 STI and HIV World Congress comprises the 23rd International Society for Sexually Transmitted Diseases Research (ISSTDR) biennial meeting held jointly with the 20th International Union Against Sexually Transmitted Infections (IUSTI) Congress from July 14-17, 2019 in Vancouver. The STI & HIV World Congress is the major forum for cross-disciplinary discussions among leading experts on optimal strategies for decreasing the public health burden of STIs and HIV worldwide. We anticipate attendance of approximately 1200 delegates from over 50 countries, including clinicians, epidemiologists, microbiologists, immunologists, social scientists, public health specialists, health policy decision makers, and industry and funding partners. An International Scientific Committee (ISC), led by 10 experts in the STI/HIV field, have assembled 37 track team members in the areas of Basic & Translational Science, Clinical Sciences, Behavioural & Social Sciences, Epidemiology & Monitoring, Policy & Community Engagement, and Program & Implementation Science. The Congress will offer Pre-Congress symposia, 2 keynotes, 15 invited plenary talks, 18 symposium sessions with 72 invited talks, 12 invited clinical case talks, 18 oral presentation sessions with 108 talks, and an anticipated 800 poster presentations, with the latter two categories selected from submitted abstracts via a highly rigorous review process conducted by a panel of 125 reviewers. Mentoring opportunities will be offered for trainees and early career researchers, and scholarships will be provided for researchers from resource-limited countries. Funds are requested to support an essential face-to-face planning meeting for the 10 ISC Chairs, to be held in Vancouver in early April 2019. This meeting will facilitate selection and organization of the oral and poster presentation sessions, and will finalize the overall scientific program including the keynote, plenary, symposium, clinical case series and mentoring sessions.