This Renewal Application for NRSA T32 MH20031 seeks to continue a highly successful Pre- and Post- Doctoral Fellowship Training Program (established in 1999) in HIV prevention research at Yale University's Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA). Over the past19 years we have successfully trained Post-Doctoral and Pre-Doctoral Fellows on HIV-related content knowledge, research skills, and professional growth and networking, and they have demonstrated tremendous productivity. The Yale AIDS Prevention Training Program (Y-APT) is housed at CIRA and within the Yale School of Public Health at Yale University. The integration with CIRA and Yale provides an exceptional training environment that continues to keep step with the changing HIV/AIDS pandemic. Our training program is unique in providing the following combination of perspectives: a focus on the latest in HIV prevention content knowledge including the HIV prevention continuum, HIV-related co-morbidities, and vulnerable and marganilized populations; a strong foundation of training that emphasizes methodological skills and rigor in both quantitative and qualitatative analyses; opportunities to conduct ethically sound, community based health equity research; the latest in technology- research; and implementation science skills and methods to support the design and evaluation of interventions that are tailored to local contexts and study populations. We are requesting support for 4 Pre-Doctoral and 5 Post-Doctoral slots per year. The focus of both the Pre- and Post-Doctoral Fellowship is ?hands on? conduct of research, analysis, paper and grant writing with a faculty mentor. All of our fellows are required to participate in a weekly seminar series. In additon, the Pre-Doctoral training also includes: formal course work, research preceptorship, seminars, outside courses and meetings, qualifying examinations, and dissertation research. Our approach to training future scientists for careers in HIV prevention research will emphasize flexibility and individual tailoring of Fellows' research preceptorships, while recognizing the importance of core training in HIV content, research skills, and professional networking. Over the past 19 years we have successfully trained, and continue to train, 77 Fellows from a variety of disciplines. Fellows are both exposed to, and actively collaborate in, a wide array of studies and career trajectories, with an unprecedented opportunity to publish their own research. We are, therefore, confident in our ability to prepare both Pre- and Post-Doctoral Fellows with the strongest foundation of knowledge, skills, and experience to achieve and sustain careers as scientific investigators, contributing to advances in HIV prevention, specifically, and public health, in general.
Program Narrative Nearly 5000 new HIV infection occur per day, and the epidemic negatively impacting the most vulnerable populations resulting in health inequities, there remains a critical need to train investigators who are prepared to conduct primary and secondary prevention research in HIV. Our proposed Training Program will continue to provide the strongest foundation of knowledge, skills, professional networking and experience to young investigators at the pre- and post-doctoral levels, who can establish and sustain careers as scientific investigators, contributing to advances in HIV prevention, specifically, and public health, in general.
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