For the last 20 years, the University of Washington (UW) AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP) has addressed the growing AIDS epidemic in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America through providing training to promising research scientists working in these regions. The UW AITRP has been highly successful at developing local capacity to perform multidisciplinary research on HIV prevention, care and treatment. Among more than 180 foreign trainees, many have made important scientific contributions, assumed leadership positions in research and health care, and influenced HIV/AIDS policies in their respective countries, as well as globally. During the last 15 years, training efforts have focused on 4 target countries, Kenya, Peru, Mozambique, and Thailand, and 96% of trainees from these countries have returned to their home countries where they now conduct HIV-related work. India was added as a target country in 2003, and this year Uganda will be added to provide new opportunities in HIV-associated malignancy research. This is possible because UW investigators in Thailand succeeded in obtaining separate Fogarty funding for Thai trainees. The proposed training plan is designed to respond to research priorities of each target country through implementation of a successful existing program that has been tailored over the last 5 years to include several new approaches. Director Or. Carey Farquhar and Co-Director Dr. King Holmes will oversee all activities related to the program, while 3 Track Directors will manage programs in Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Basic Sciences. Within each of the tracks, special emphasis will be placed on training in 3areas identified as being high priority: Sociobehavioral Research, International Clinical Trials, and Operations Research. An outstanding pool of 32 Core and 56 Resource Faculty ensures excellent mentorship for trainees and expertise across a range of disciplines. Each year, we anticipate funding 3-4 trainees in UW degree programs, for a total of 15-20 new appointments. In addition, the UW AITRP will fund 1 new trainee every other year in a distance learning master's program in Biostatistics and 2-4 trainees annually in medium-term trainees. To provide a bridge for exceptional trainees completing UW degree programs, support will be awarded to 1 advanced in-country scholar per year. Several regional conferences and short courses on HIV/AIDS research methods will also be funded, including new courses targeting the emphasis areas described above. The UW AITRP will make a sustained effort this grant cycle to lay the groundwork for transferring training responsibility to the two most established UW AITRP sites: Kenya and Peru. This will be accomplished by supporting medium-training for curriculum development and long-term training at the PhD level for faculty at collaborating institutions, thus promoting independent research and training programs in Kenya and Peru, as well as in other UW target countries in the future.
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