As we work to accelerate the development of a safe and effective AIDS vaccine, many of the thousands of new volunteers will come forward in the face of fear, uncertainty or stigma, and at a time when there is increasing public concern about medical research. There is a growing need to ensure adequate scientific and research literacy among trial volunteers and communities so that individuals can make informed decisions about participation. And there is also a need for researchers to increase their community literacy–to understand the needs, motivations and expectations of the communities from which volunteers will be drawn.

All of us in the global community of researchers, policy makers and advocates must work together to ensure that trial participants can have the understanding and confidence they need to be a part of the global enterprise of AIDS vaccine development.

In this report, we offer recommendations for the field in general, the Global HIV/AIDS Vaccine Enterprise, policy makers, researchers and communities. Some of these recommendations will be familiar because we’ve made them before, and we reiterate them because we believe they are still needed and useful. We also provide an update on tenofovir PREP research.

And some analysis and recommendations are new. For example, we take an in-depth look at intellectual property issues and offer some "small step" recommendations that we believe will help move the field forward.

So, we stand here at a crossroads. We know that our roadmap is ever-evolving and by definition cannot be straightforward.

We at AVAC are committed to always finding and nurturing a diverse cadre of new AIDS vaccine advocates all over the world. We are committed to strengthening the worldwide coalition of humans who understand and support the road to a vaccine. And we are enthusiastic about our role and the work ahead of us in the next years.

We hope you will find the report useful and re-energizing, and we look forward to your feedback and guidance on how the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition might best help to pave the road forward.

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