With over 65 million infected or dead from HIV infection, heightened urgency is reflected in the dramatic expansion of funding to the developing world from the US government and other sources. Essential to implementing the goals of this funding: expanded therapy and care access, prevention of infection, and the development of HIV vaccines are a series of research issues that guide the training focus of the IHV/UM-AITRP which are aligned with the priorities of the targeted countries of the Caribbean, Brazil and Nigeria. During the initial 5 years of funding the IHV-AITRP has provided long-term training to 13 scientists from 6 countries, and conducted short-term training for 218 professionals from 19 countries and grown research funding to $3.6 million annually in the target countries. Because of the long lag time for pre-doctoral training to impact the epidemic, the post-doctoral, Scholars and Faculty/Investigator training tracks provides a strategy for upgrading HIV training in order to immediately impact research capacity. The goals of the current proposal are to: t) Provide long term (masters degree, Ph.D. and postdoctoral) training for physicians, dentists, public health officials, laboratory-based medical researchers, medical technicians, and nurses to respond to the needs of the countries served. 2) Undertake intensive short term training of key in country investigators and support staff to facilitate capacity to undertake HIV/AIDS research activities. 3 Transition trainees into productive research, policy and leadership positions by linking trainee selection to country priorities and growing research capacity by targeting training to align with sustainable research opportunities in country. To achieve these goals the resources of the IHV and several professional schools of the University of Maryland have formed a multidisciplinary coalition for training in epidemiology and prevention, therapy and care, and clinical, basic and vaccine research. The Training Advisory Group, drawn from senior university faculty, the IHV Scientific Advisory Board, and in-country coordinators from the countries served assists in trainee selection, scientific review and evaluation of training program progress. In-country coordinators promote alignment with country priorities and placement of returning trainees into high-impact positions. During the second cycle of IHV/UM-AITRP funding research training relevant to scientific questions impacted by the massive scale up of therapy and prevention programs is given special emphasis.
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