February 7th is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD) is observed annually on February 7. Governed by the Strategic Leadership Council, NBHAAD began in 1999 as a national response to the growing HIV and AIDS epidemic in African American communities. Black communities have made great progress in reducing HIV. Yet, issues such as racism, discrimination, and mistrust in the health care system may affect whether Black people seek or receive HIV prevention services. These issues may also reduce the likelihood of engaging in HIV treatment and care. NBHAAD is an opportunity to increase HIV education, testing, community involvement, and treatment among Black communities.

This year’s theme is “Together...We Can Make HIV Black History!”. The Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP) will host a one-year follow-up: Live with Leadership: A Conversation Commemorating National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on Tuesday, February 7 from 2:30–3:00 pm (ET).

News from the CFAR

Register for an Interactive Workshop with Dr. Glenda Gray

Tuesday, February 14th, 2023 | 11am-1pm ET | Trent Semans Center for Health Education Sixth Floor

The Duke Center for AIDS Research invites you to an interactive workshop on Tuesday, February 14^th from 11am – 1pm, Why Love, Compassion, and Advocacy are Essential for Impactful HIV Research: A Workshop for HIV Basic Scientists, Clinical Researchers, and Social/Behavioral Scientists.

We will be joined by Dr. Glenda Gray, a pediatrician and co-founder of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit in Soweto, South Africa. She has expertise in the field of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, adolescent HIV prevention and treatment, and HIV vaccine and microbicide research.

Through activities and conversation, the workshop will encourage researchers and trainees at any stage in their careers to learn from each other and reflect on ways to center advocacy and community in their work.

The workshop will be held in-person on the Sixth Floor of the Trent Semans Center for Health Education (8 Searle Center Dr, Durham, NC 27710), located off of Research Drive.

Please register by Wednesday, February 8th and select your lunch option.

Register for the workshop.

CFAR Pilot Grant RFA Released - Apply for up to $100,000 in funds

The CFAR Developmental Core Pilot Awards support scientific studies for 1 year. The purpose of these awards is to develop preliminary data for peer-reviewed applications.

Proposals must target one of the NIH HIV/AIDS Priority Areas of Research.

Two types of Pilot Awards are available:

• Standard Pilot Awards (7 pages) -- up to a maximum award of $100,000 direct funding
• Focused Pilot Awards (3 pages) -- up to a maximum award of $60,000 direct funding

Eligibility for CFAR Pilot Awards

Faculty

• No prior R01 level funding in the HIV/AIDS field
• Applicants with prior R01 funding in other fields are encouraged to apply

Post-doctoral and Clinical fellows

• Applicants with a current K award must have NIH pre-approval
• T32 awardees cannot use CFAR award for training or stipends
• Separate letter of support from faculty mentor required, see Application information below
• If proposal is reviewed and meets scoring criteria for award, PI Status must be submitted and obtained by department prior to CFAR issuing an award notification (JIT)

Questions on eligibility should be directed to the CFAR Developmental Core

Required letter of intent due: Tuesday, February 28th

Proposals Due: May 1, 2023

Projected Award Date: July 1, 2023

Learn more and access the RFP.

Dr. Gerald Bloomfield Joins DGHI Leadership

Gerald Bloomfield, M.D., a cardiologist and an associate professor of medicine and global health, has been named associate director for research at the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI). A graduate of DGHI’s pathway program for medical residents. Bloomfield has led research and capacity-building projects to promote cardiovascular health in several low-resource settings, including a long-standing research program in Kenya, as well as projects in the U.S. South.

Dr. Bloomfield is a previous CFAR Pilot award recipient for his project, Evaluating Inflammatory Indicators of Cardiac Performance in Children with Perinatally Acquired Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Western Kenya.

Read the full announcement.

January SBS Core Rocket Talk Recap - Policy Communication

Thank you to everyone who attended our January Rocket Talk on Policy Communication. If you were unable to attend, you can view the recording of the session on the Duke CFAR SBS Core Rocket Talk - January 2023 - YouTube.

This Rocket Talk focused on scientific communication with policy makers. Senator Graig Meyer presented “Stories First, Facts will Follow” and described pathways to open policy makers hearts, and then inform—and possibly even change—their minds by appealing to their emotions and belief systems and then filling in the rationale with facts and the research process. 80% of Senator Meyer’s position is interpersonal communication, so bringing in a story (instead of a fact or figure) is much more likely to have an impact. He also reviewed examples of effective policy changers such as Harvey Milk and radical demonstrators at the forefront of the HIV epidemic who used real people’s stories combined with figures and research to make an impact.

Jenni Owen, Director of the North Carolina Office of Strategic Partnerships, presented “Government Wants (and uses) Research, too,” and described real examples of missed policy communication opportunities by researchers. When communicating with policymakers, Owen suggested to use the same terms policymakers use when describing your research and share reasons why they should care about your research findings. She also suggested to join the press release listserve for governmental agencies most relevant to your research, and provided online resources and partnership opportunities to help researchers engage more with policymakers.

Watch the recording.

From HIV to COVID: Health and Human Rights in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Wednesday, February 15th, 2023 | 5pm-7pm ET |Karsh Alumni Center, 2080 Duke University Rd

Victor J. Dzau Distinguished Lecture in Global Health and Alumni Reception

South Africa’s democratic government came to power in 1994 with a new constitution founded on the values of human dignity, the achievement of equality, and the advancement of human rights and freedom. At the same time, the AIDS epidemic swept across sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Glenda Gray, a pioneering South African physician and researcher and president of the South African Medical Research Council, will discuss how the country made important scientific breakthroughs on the disease, while also battling the legacies of apartheid, prejudice and AIDS denialism. Drawing parallels to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Gray will examine the impact of both public health crises on human rights.

Dr. Gray, a pediatrician, is the co-founder of the internationally recognized Perinatal HIV Research Unit in Soweto, South Africa. She is a co-principal investigator of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, an international collaboration working to develop a vaccine to prevent HIV/AIDS. In 2017, Time named her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for her pioneering work on HIV prevention, and Forbes named her as one of Africa’s 50 most influential women. As the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, she was among the first South African leaders to engage in public dialogue about the health crisis and moved quickly to establish COVID-19 vaccine trials in the country. When the country’s vaccine roll-out faltered, she managed to procure half a million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for health care workers during the Beta wave of infection.

ABOUT THE EVENT

The Victor J. Dzau Distinguished Lecture in Global Health brings visionary leaders to Duke to discuss cross-cutting issues confronting health, equity and human rights around the world. This year, we are celebrating the return to in-person events with a special reception for Duke global health alumni and friends before Dr. Gray’s talk in Duke’s beautiful Karsh Alumni Center. Come to reconnect with DGHI faculty, staff and alumni, meet DGHI’s new director and greet our speaker. Both the talk and reception are free and open to the public, but registration is strongly encouraged.

Free parking will be available in the paved lot adjacent to the Karsh Center off Duke University Road. Overflow parking will be available in the gravel lot across Duke University Road.



This annual lecture is supported by a gift from former Duke Health chancellor Victor J. Dzau, and his wife, Ruth Cooper-Dzau, as well as funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health Matching Grant.

Learn more and RSVP.

DC CFAR Citywide Seminar: CFAR Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Pathway Initiative

Tuesday, February 7th, 2023 | 4-5:30pm ET | Webinar

Please join the DC CFAR on Tuesday, February 7 from 4:00 to 5:30 PM ET for a virtual Citywide Seminar on the CFAR Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Pathway Initiative (CDEIPI). This seminar will provide information about the national CDEIPI program and will then focus on the local DC CFAR project entitled "Developing an Inclusive Generation of HIV Researchers through Diversity and Community" which is being led by Howard University. The goal of this project is to provide mentored research opportunities and professional development to engage high school and undergraduate students in HIV research. The seminar will feature presentations from the project leads, Drs. Anthony Wutoh (HU), Kim Blankenship (AU) and Mark Burke (HU) followed by DC CFAR CDEIPI Scholar Ms. Haifa Ahmed who will share her experiences and perspectives.

Register for the webinar.

Webinar by the Sex and Gender SWG of the Rustbelt CFAR - Embodied Inequality Among Trans Women Living with HIV: Early Findings from the LITE Plus Study

Wednesday, February 8th, 2023 | 3pm ET | Webinar

The Sex and Gender Scientific Working Group of the Rustbelt Center for AIDS Research is thrilled to host a lecture by Dr. Tonia Poteat, PhD, PA-C, MPH.

Dr. Poteat is a world-renowned expert in HIV and LGBTQ health and leads ground-breaking research that focuses on the health of transgender communities. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC), core faculty in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research, and a PA in the UNC Infectious Diseases Clinic. Certified as an HIV Specialist by the American Academy of HIV Medicine and Gender Specialist by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, she is an expert in HIV research and care with transgender persons. She is an associate editor for the journal LGBT Health and serves on the Department of Health and Human Services Adolescent and Adult Treatment Guidelines panel. She founded and leads the Inter-CFAR Transgender Health Scientific Working Group.

Register for the webinar.

Webinar - Acceptability assessment in HIV intervention and service delivery programs: A summary of existing evidence and recommendations for better practice

Thursday, February 16th, 2023 | 2-3pm ET | Zoom

The NIAID-NIMH Behavioral and Social Sciences Project Team (BSSPT) Presents:

We have often grappled with how to assess “acceptability” of HIV prevention interventions in our own studies. The HIV literature offers varied approaches to conceptualize and measure acceptability, with many studies considering constructs like “intervention retention” or “product uptake” as sole acceptability indicators. However, acceptability is multi-faceted and separate from these behavioral outcomes. This presentation will describe findings from our recent systematic review, in which we inventory acceptability measurement in the HIV treatment and prevention literature (including biomedical, behavioral, and combination prevention approaches) and offer suggested rankings of these measures based on theoretical underpinnings and data collection approaches. We will conclude by sharing our recommendations for best practices in acceptability research, which are timely and critical in this era of informed choice and novel HIV prevention and treatment options.

Zoom information

Meeting URL: https://nih.zoomgov.com/j/1600789141?pwd=QytyZUtYUjI2S3cwK0M2ZldWcVZwZz09

Meeting ID: 160 078 9141

Passcode: 815863

NIH Funding Opportunity: Mentored Research Science Development Award

HIV/AIDS Scholars Using Nonhuman Primate (NHP) Models Program (K01 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed) - PAR-22-248

The purpose of this NIH Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) is to provide salary and research support to investigators who are within ten years of completing their terminal professional degree or residency training. Research and mentorship must be in the field of HIV/AIDS translational studies, using nonhuman primates (NHPs) as preclinical models. These awards will provide 3 years of support for intensive research career development under the guidance of an experienced mentorship team, with expertise in both the pre-clinical application of NHP HIV/AIDS models and in translation of the results from such studies to clinical application in humans. The expectation is that this sustained experience will launch independent research careers and enable awardees to become competitive for new research project grant (e.g., R01) funding. This funding initiative addresses research priorities of the fiscal year (FY) 2021-2025 NIH Strategic Plan for HIV and HIV-Related Research (https://www.oar.nih.gov/hiv-policy-and-research/strategic-plan): reduce the incidence of HIV; develop next-generation HIV therapies; research toward HIV cure; and address HIV-associated comorbidities, coinfections, and complications.

NIH Resources available for FORMS-H Transition

For applications due on or after January 25, 2023, you must use the FORMS-H application form set rather than the FORMS-G application form set. NIH is switching form sets to implement the new Data Management and Sharing Policy and also incorporate several smaller changes to the application package.

NIAID described the timing and logistics behind the transition in our August 17, 2022 Funding News article, “FORMS-H Will Implement New Data Management and Sharing Policy.”

To further aid applicants, NIH posted a series of helpful resources. Most important is the How to Apply - Application Guide page, which offers comprehensive directions accounting for every aspect of a FORMS-H grant application.

NIH also created a High-level Summary of Form Changes in FORMS-H Application Packages, revised its Do I Have the Right Forms for My Application? instructions, and updated Application Forms, Form Updates, and Choosing the Correct Forms FAQs.

A compilation of funding opportunities can be found on the CFAR website.

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