AVAC’s PxROAR (Prevention Research, Outreach, Advocacy and Representation) and CureROAR trains US, European and African partners in advocacy to advance research and ultimately rollout of interventions related to HIV cure and prevention. The program provides mentorship, peer support, networking opportunities, technical support and financial assistance.
Supporting Advocacy Where it’s Needed
The ROAR programs bring together advocates around regional or topic-based issues to support specialized advocacy. Each ROAR cadre develops expertise and an advocacy agenda to advance key priorities. Providing this support means critical issues, such as the inclusion of transgender people in research or investment in cure research or scrutinizing the role of FDA approval in global access to new prevention options will be doggedly advanced by informed and effective advocates.
About the Project
The ROAR programs educate its members on the science of HIV prevention and cure research. Additionally, they demystify and empower members to understand the process of then delivering proven interventions to the communities that need these options most.
The ROAR programs also provide a platform for specific advocacy campaigns. The five cadres of ROAR advocates are PxROAR US, PxROAR Europe, PxROAR Africa, PxROAR TG and CureROAR. Members are based in Africa, the US and Europe, and represent the range of HIV-affected communities.
PxROAR United States & PxROAR Europe: These programs expand members’ capacity to contribute to advocacy for research, development and implementation of new HIV prevention options. Members track FDA and EMA licensing processes and advocate for sustained funding to key research entities including the US National Institutes of Health and European-based research institutes funded through the EU’s Financial Framework 2014-2020 and Horizon 2020.
PxROAR Africa: Through dialogues, shared learning and strategic action, this ROAR team advances the human right to health, including comprehensive HIV prevention treatment and care. With extensive experience in advocacy and activism aimed at securing self-determination, free expression, and culturally competent health services, PxROAR AFRICA’s work focuses on agendas that will eventually end HIV epidemics in their communities. Members represent LGBTQI individuals, sex workers and other criminalized and marginalized populations.
PxROAR TG: PxROAR TG articulates an HIV prevention advocacy agenda specifically for trans people within the framework of key populations’ needs and programs. Members are based in Southern and Eastern Africa.
CureROAR: The HIV cure field is undergoing a period of robust scientific investigation. The CureROAR program supports members to understand the relevant science and prepare an advocacy agenda that will ensure cure research reflects the needs, priorities and experiences of all populations affected by HIV. CureROAR is made up of members from countries where cure research is taking place and CureROAR members represent communities affected by HIV.
Contact
For more information on the PxROAR program, please email [email protected].
Advocacy and Action for Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention
Accelerating the development and delivery of STI prevention
AVAC’s work to advance advocacy for STI prevention and integrate it with HIV prevention and global health equity involves supporting a network of advocates, expanding research literacy, and identifying priorities for the field.
Action That’s Long Overdue
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are widespread, remain difficult to prevent, and can have severe health consequences, including increased risk for HIV acquisition. While most STIs are curable, they often go undiagnosed and untreated because they tend to cause few or no initial symptoms. Available diagnostics are often too costly to use for routine screening in many low to middle income countries (LMICs), and to date few vaccines exist to address the most common STIs.
Despite the scope and urgency of the problem, STIs receive little public policy or community attention. These infections are often stigmatizing and their effects are most devastating among groups with little political power, such as adolescent girls and young women, sex workers, gay men, and other men who has sex with men.
STIs intersect with HIV and other key priorities for global health equity- developing an advocacy agenda to expedite research, development and rollout of strategies to test for and prevent STIs that is integrated into a broader response is fundamental to global health. Current knowledge and technology suggest breakthroughs are possible and could deliver better, affordable diagnostics and new prevention options.
Supporting a Network of Advocates
STIs intersect with the concerns of many vibrant advocacy communities including those working in HIV, sexual and reproductive health, cancer, infertility, and maternal and newborn health. AVAC draws from these communities to raise awareness of STI advocacy, and interest and expertise in scientific research on STI vaccines or diagnostics.
Expanding and advancing the pipeline of research and development for diagnostics and vaccines, along with driving policies and funding to bolster use of the diagnostics that already exist, are essential for prevention across global health.
STI Advocacy in Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe
AVAC and partners are proud to share three new national sexually transmitted infections (STIs) advocacy agendas for Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe, providing coordinated agendas to elevate STIs as a national health priority and accelerate actions on R&D and delivery of STI vaccines, diagnostics, prevention and care. Learn more.
Expanding Research Literacy for STI Prevention
AVAC and partners provide a host of resources to track and translate research related to STI prevention.
STI Watch.org tracks vaccine research for seven of the most common STIs, and features a roadmap for development of new vaccines from WHO, NIH and other partners.
The STI Advocates Network reaches a growing list of seasoned advocates developing expertise in STI research with news and information for their advocacy. Sign up here.
STI R&D Investment, AVAC’s resource tracking report provides an annual analysis of global funding trends for STI prevention research.
Media Science Cafes provides additional resources on STI research for journalists.
STI subawards provides grantees an opportunity to explore how to better advocate for and communicate about STI vaccines, diagnostics, and other prevention tools. Learn more in the blogpost, Paving the Road for STI Prevention Advocacy.
Identifying Priorities for the Field
A growing network of STI advocates are accelerating the development of a pipeline of new diagnostics and vaccines. This work depends on champions to make the connection between a robust pipeline of STI prevention products, reduced STI prevalence, reduced HIV risk, and dramatic strides in the improved health of women and other key populations.
With ready access to STI-focused data and information provided by the resources above, advocates are identifying baseline data, gaps and resource needs; and consolidating messages and advocacy priorities. This in turn informs collaborations with health and political leaders to set goals for research, investment, policy, planning, and integrated programs for STI and HIV prevention.
A coordinated approach to scaling up access to HIV prevention products
BioPIC is pioneering an integrated and adaptable approach to introducing new HIV prevention products to people who need them, such as injectable lenacapavir (LEN) and cabotegravir (CAB) for PrEP.
Overview: Why Now?
The HIV response needs coordination and innovation in product delivery now.
The HIV prevention products that exist today hold the potential to curb incidence. But knowledgeable observers, drawing lessons from the slow roll out and low uptake of oral PrEP in the early years of its availability, know that coordination must be intensified. Without it, highly efficacious products never reach the populations that need it.
About the Project
The BioPIC collaboration involves civil society, donors, researchers, policy makers, implementers, product developers and normative agencies such as WHO and UNAIDS, and is made possible through the generous support of the Gates Foundation, and was established in partnership with AVAC, Access Bridge, and CHAI.
The BioPIC Framework
BioPIC developed the Adaptable Product Introduction Framework for all stakeholders involved in product introduction, from clinical research to rollout in low- and middle-income countries. The framework prioritizes activities that must begin in parallel to phase III clinical trials. Stakeholders with a role in early phase product development may also benefit from these considerations with better coordination around anticipated needs.
BioPIC Priorities
Plan to provide global and national bodies with needed evidence on safety and efficacy:
Plan in advance to obtain safety data for pregnant and breastfeeding women
Plan in advance and bolster systems to monitor resistance
Conduct research for additional populations not included in clinical trials
Streamline regulatory review and development of normative guidance
Understand resource needs and the impact of new PrEPproducts:
Model impact in different country contexts
Build consensus and methodology for monitoring, target-setting and evaluation
Conduct cost and payer analyses to inform budgeting
Coordinate and align product procurement
Enable programs to quickly move from small projects to scale:
Analyze delivery channel to identify opportunities and challenges prior to early implementation projects
Support the development guidance and tools at the earliest stage of implementation.
Consolidate implementation questions in fewer, larger-scale projects
Identify methods to support high uptake and continued use:
Engage and build community mechanisms to refine program design and implementation
Conduct human-centered design research to understand factors that encourage or inhibit uptake and continued use, tailored for providers, communities, and priority populations
For additional assistance, reach out to Cat Verde Hashim at [email protected].
Coalition to Accelerate Access to Long-Acting PrEP
Overcoming access challenges to new PrEP options
Structure of the Coalition to Accelerate Access to Long-Acting PrEP
The Coalition to Accelerate Access to Long-Acting PrEP brings together donors, civil society, ministries of health, implementation science think tanks and partner organizations to ensure an accelerated, equitable, sustainable, and collaborative approach to optimizing access to new long-acting PrEP options. The Coalition is convened by the Global Fund, PEPFAR, Unitaid, UNAIDS and WHO, with AVAC as the Secretariat through 2025 and Access Bridge as the current Secretariat.
The Coalition’s objective is practical: to coordinate key stakeholder activities on long-acting PrEP access, including jointly developing strategies to identify and overcome access challenges for new PrEP options available now and those in the pipeline.
Overview: A critical moment for ending the epidemic
In 2012, oral PrEP was approved for use as a safe and effective option for HIV prevention. But the field moved too slowly, missing 2020 prevention targets by millions. In 2022, the number of initiated oral PrEP users finally hit three million, but still only a fraction of the estimated number of people who need it and could benefit from it.
As new, longer-acting PrEP options such as injectable cabotegravir and lenacapavir reach the market, the world cannot afford to squander another decade navigating these challenges. This coalition is setting an agenda for bold action, leveraging global urgency, and coordinating partnerships.
About the Project
Product developers, policy makers, normative agencies, donors, program implementers, researchers, generic manufacturers, civil society, advocates and communities each have critical roles to play. The Coalition is applying lessons learned from oral PrEP, creating plans to overcome the unique challenges for new prevention options, and ensuring that new, longer-acting PrEP options including injectable CAB and the dapivirine vaginal ring will be available and equitably accessible to all who need them, more quickly than ever before.
Discrete working groups are taking on: Demand assessment; Evaluation of cost and regulatory procedures; Finance and procurement; Demand creation and supportive policies. Each of these working groups involve robust representation from ministries of health and civil society. To extend the reach and impact of this work, the Coalition engages with efforts underway to:
Champion civil society voices in the rollout of CAB and other HIV prevention options, led by the African Women Community Prevention Accountability Board; AfroCAB; AVAC; Access Bridge; Global Black Gay Men Connect (GBGMC); and the Key Population Advisory Group.
Impact
The Coalition provides quarterly updates to chart progress. Visit this page on PrEPWatch for more on the Coalition and its latest updates.
A long-acting PrEP status update is also available, synthesizing the current status of long-acting PrEP products. Visit for graphics pertaining to the regulatory approvals, volumes, ongoing and planned implementation science studies, and non-profit prices for currently available long-acting PrEP products
Contact
For more information or with questions for the Coalition co-convenors, contact [email protected].
Coalition to Accelerate & Support Prevention Research (CASPR)
An African-Led Movement for Prevention Research
The Coalition to Accelerate and Support Prevention Research (CASPR) project was an Africa-centered network from 2016 – 2025 dedicated to accelerating biomedical HIV prevention research and development and to advancing equitable access to proven HIV prevention options.
Overview
People need access to an array of effective HIV prevention options that work for their life circumstances. Once products are shown to work, programs, policies and funding must meet the needs of affected communities and overcome barriers that have blocked or slowed access in the past. At the same time, it is essential that research and development (R&D) for next-generation products continue in order to fill the gaps in the prevention toolbox. CASPR was designed to take on these challenges.
About CASPR
The Coalition to Accelerate & Support Prevention Research (CASPR) was designed by AVAC and partners and supported by USAID from 2016 to 2025. CASPR was an Africa-led, multi-country coalition of 13 partners working together to change how HIV prevention is pursued and delivered. CASPR activities focused primarily on African countries with the highest burden of new HIV infections, and where biomedical HIV prevention research is ongoing or planned.
The Coalition:
Supported advocacy networks to strengthen and expand a global cadre of informed, action-oriented advocates who advance an agenda for HIV prevention research.
Translated research and shared accessible resources with advocates, policymakers, donors and other key stakeholders to ensure scientific advancements translate into policies and practices that uphold the needs and interests of all stakeholders, particularly trial participants and the communities research is intended to benefit.
Conducted research preparedness to ensure that rights and interests of trial participants, eventual users and communities are represented and respected throughout the process, from research to rollout.
Advocated for policies that support efficient and ethical development, introduction and use of new HIV prevention options.
Impact
CASPR created a platform to support, expand and advance African-centered leadership of the advocacy that’s crucial to ensure that a robust pipeline of prevention options are developed and reach the people who need them most – and that these people are active partners throughout the R&D and delivery process. Through deep investment in local organizations and a commitment to shared power, co-created strategy and elevating local leadership within a global network, the Coalition transformed HIV prevention research advocacy.
Over eight years, CASPR:
Advanced ethical, community-centered research design in HIV vaccine and PrEP trials, ensuring that stakeholder perspectives are incorporated into every step of the process.
Cultivated community trust in the research process, increasing access to accurate scientific information and expanding community engagement in HIV prevention research.
Built broad consensus on community priorities for the HIV prevention R&D pipeline, resulting in critical buy-in and support from researchers, funders and decision-makers.
Championed choice in HIV prevention R&D and rollout, with a strong focus on girls and women and key and vulnerable populations, successfully accelerating access to products that communities need.
Secured critical commitments from product developers on access and price transparency to advance the introduction of new HIV prevention products.
Ethical and effective stakeholder engagement throughout clinical trials and research agendas for HIV prevention and beyond
The Good Participatory Practice Guidelines (GPP) provide trial funders, sponsors and implementers with systematic guidance on how to effectively engage with all stakeholders in the design and conduct of clinical trials for biomedical HIV prevention.
GPP is a linchpin to the ethical conduct of clinical trials, global health equity and pandemic preparedness.
Overview
In 2004, Cambodia’s Prime Minister halted planned PrEP efficacy trials set to take place in Cambodia and Cameroon. Local, national, and international stakeholders had raised concerns, highlighting a disconnect with research teams and divergent perspectives on the ethics of the trials’ design. Although the proposed trials had been designed in accordance with international guidance on ethics and clinical research, there was no common document or guideline for conducting or evaluating stakeholder engagement. The ensuing controversies crystallized the need for a reference guide, inclusively created with all relevant stakeholders, on ethical and effective stakeholder engagement related to clinical trials for HIV prevention.
The draft guidelines were further refined through broad consultation involving a wide range of stakeholders. In 2007 the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and AVAC published the first edition of the Good Participatory Practice Guidelines for biomedical HIV prevention trials. The second edition, including stakeholder input, was published in 2011.
Since the publication of the guidelines for HIV prevention trials, the guidelines have also been adapted for research on tuberculosis (TB) drugs and vaccines, COVID-19 research, and emerging pathogens. We believe they will be further adapted to other areas of clinical research aimed at global disease threats.
What is GPP?
The GPP guidelines were created to provide a consistent global standard for stakeholder engagement throughout the life-cycle of the research enterprise, from trial design to trial conduct to the dissemination of research results to, finally, access to proven intervention.
GPP Guidelines are written for research entities including trial sites, funders, and sponsors of research. External stakeholders, such as advocates, policy makers, and communities are encouraged to use the guidelines to hold research entities accountable, or implement components of the guidelines directly. This ‘external’ approach to GPP is a powerful way to hold research entities responsible for community-centered trials.
As a point of reference for how to engage stakeholders, GPP has given rise to a robust community of practice. It has created a process for deeper trust between research teams and other stakeholders and greater understanding about how trials will affect communities. This in turn improves trial design and conduct, and improves how trial results are understood, accepted and applied, regardless of the outcome.
GPP is a way to achieve the most community-centric results from a trial or research agenda – however, it is not a guarantee of successful trial results. GPP gives researchers a better sense of how communities will perceive trials and products and provides an opportunity to adapt and improve those perceptions. But GPP alone cannot induce participants to stay in a trial, adhere to a trial regimen, guarantee a product will be accepted, or eliminate the risk of controversy. GPP does provide a framework for navigating questions and controversy if they occur.
GPP Body of Evidence
Since its first draft, the GPP guidelines have been adopted and used in HIV research and far beyond. AVAC has collected this body of evidence for GPP to demonstrate the power of GPP, to show how GPP can be measured and replicated, and to offer GPP training, tools and connection to everyone involved in the research enterprise.
Online GPP Trainings and Tools for Implementation
The Engage Platform provides access to AVAC’s primary online training courses for various audiences. It also provides supplementary tools to support researchers and other stakeholders to conduct in-person GPP trainings, implement the guidelines, and join a community of practice of GPP implementers around the world.
Impact
GPP and stakeholder engagement has shifted trial design and approaches – for the better
The CAPRISA research center in South Africa has built a long-standing relationship with the community, independent of trials, including providing benefits such as support to local schools. This has resulted in increased trust by the community, who provides honest insight into how members perceive and participate in trials.
Gilead, a drug company, amended the protocol of an efficacy trial for a next-generation PrEP product and created new advisory mechanisms after receiving feedback from concerned advocates about the trial’s design and lack of community engagement.
The Microbicide Trials Network conducted wide stakeholder engagement for MTN 017, the first ever global rectal microbicide study. The network has stated that participation, adherence, and thus trial results benefited from trust built within communities and amongst national stakeholders through their GPP consultation processes.
As a community advocate, the principles and participatory tools of GPP have enabled me to be responsive and accountable to the well-being of local and global populations.
Neetha Morar
South African Medical Research Council
GPP helps the community become active partners in HIV clinical research. Before GPP, we were limited to advising on study brochures and pamphlets. Now, we have a methodology for involvement in the full research life-cycle, from planning a study to the release of data, and beyond.
Udom Likhitwonnawut
Thai NGO Coalition on AIDS/Civil Society
Good Participatory Practices have transformed the way that biomedical research is conducted around the world. While HIV researchers and communities have historically wanted to work together in meaningful partnerships, the process of actually doing this in a transparent, consistent, teachable, and metrics-driven way was impossible until GPP was developed. In the era of emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola, Zika, and pandemic influenza, GPP for HIV research has illuminated the way forward for impactful relationships between researches and communities in a growing number of fields.
For more information on GPP or the online course, reach out to [email protected].
Transgender Manifesto
Manifesto to Align HIV Prevention Research with Trans and Gender Diverse Realities
No Data No More provides a vision for a relevant and inclusive trans and gender-diverse (TGD) research agenda, offering public recommendations to finally fulfill an inclusive HIV research future where TGD people flourish in all our diversity.
A TGD-inclusive research agenda is long overdue.
Trans women bear a disproportionate burden of HIV globally with 20 percent living with HIV—66 times greater than the general population. Trans masculine people have a global prevalence of 2.6 percent, seven times greater than the general population, however, they are woefully understudied and the absence of data leads to a false assumption that they bear little to no burden of the virus. Gender nonbinary people face even greater underrepresentation in HIV surveillance and research and related syndemics (the confluence of two epidemics with the potential to worsen outcomes for both). Efforts to bring an end to the global HIV pandemic will fail if effective, accessible HIV prevention interventions don’t reach TGD communities. Yet TGD people—who often face crushing stigma, marginalization, criminalization and violence, along with a disproportionate burden of HIV—continue to be overlooked, underrepresented or excluded altogether from HIV prevention research and programs. Though there’s been some TGD-inclusive scientific literature and trans-led research, it falls gravely short of what’s needed.
About the Project
The manifesto is the foundational tool advancing AVAC’s trans and gender diverse advocacy. It lays out a detailed vision, outlining practical and essential priorities to HIV researchers, site-level staff and funders. The No Data No More Manifesto puts forth over two dozen recommendations for researchers and advocates to ensure the acceleration of trans-inclusion in research—both clinical trials and implementation studies. It also calls for the dismantling of social, legal and economic barriers that prevent TGD people from accessing healthcare and other rights to fulfill a dignified life. Ongoing engagement, consultation and convenings with these stakeholders and people from the trans and gender diverse community includes:
The Manifesto Roadshow: a series of dialogues with TGD people, funders, researchers, program implementers, regulators and community networks to accelerate and coordinate efforts for trans inclusion in research.
Trans-Inclusivity Scorecard: An analysis of trans representation in key HIV trials since 1991 and a template for scoring future trials. Offered to researchers and community advocates alike to inform trial design.
TG ROAR: (Research, Outreach, Advocacy and Representation) is an AVAC program populated with trans and gender-diverse people from Southern and Eastern Africa. ROARers use the Manifesto as its advocacy North Star, guiding trans-inclusive research as well as gender justice at the local and national levels.
Impact
15 Roadshows (as of Jan 2023) with community, implementers and researchers.
Contact
To learn more about the manifesto and our work, contact Cindra Feuer at [email protected].
PrEPWatch is an online clearinghouse for resources and information related to the effectively delivery of proven PrEP products to everyone who needs them. Visit for updates on the status of access to PrEP products around the world and by country. Find the supporting evidence behind PrEP products available now and in development, learn who is working on delivering PrEP, and find tools and research for best practices.
PrEPWatch.org’s Essential Role
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uses antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to dramatically reduce the risk of HIV infection for people who take it as directed. Though PrEP could potentially benefit tens of millions of people at risk of exposure to HIV, and help to end the HIV epidemic, only a fraction of this number is using PrEP today. See the PrEPWatch tracker for quarterly updates on this figure at data.prepwatch.org.
About the Project
Understanding how to deliver PrEP to the diverse populations that need it has been slow, lacking in coordination and urgently requires comprehensive planning, investment and political will. PrEPWatch.org provides critical resources for the work that needs to be done. PrEPWatch collects data on PrEP use, provides updates on programs and policies around the world, and features resources, trainings and case studies on the best practices for planning and implementation of PrEP delivery.
If you have comments or suggestions for the site, reach out to [email protected].
The Global Advocacy-for-a-Cure Academy
Preparing a generation of cure advocates to fight for research
The Advocacy-for-a-Cure Academy connects advocates with leading researchers to explore the latest HIV cure strategies and equip advocates with the skills needed to develop advocacy agendas and prepare their communities for HIV cure trials.
The World Needs an HIV Cure, and Cure Research Needs Advocates
More than a hundred HIV cure clinical trials with thousands of participants are underway. An effective HIV cure will reduce new infections, neutralize stigma and discrimination, contribute to the end of the epidemic and provide hope to millions of people living with HIV. But cure research is highly complex and the trials to test possible solutions involve careful considerations that communities must understand. Advocates play a fundamental role in shaping a research agenda that reflects community priorities and ensuring communities understand and support research.
About the Advocacy-for-a-Cure Academy
AVAC convenes two HIV Cure Academies each year—the Advocacy-For-a-Cure Academy and the US HIV Cure Academy. The Academies prepare civil society to fight effectively for research that matters to the people who are most impacted by HIV. AVAC co-hosts the Advocacy-For-a-Cure Academy in Africa with the International AIDS Society (IAS) in partnership with the Africa HIV Cure Consortium (AHCC). The Advocacy-for-a-Cure Academy brings together 13-15 seasoned advocates and leading cure researchers to explore current strategies under investigation and the implications for different populations. They consider the challenges in cure research, approaches to broad stakeholder engagement and an advocacy agenda to accelerate the design, social acceptability and rapid adoption of HIV cure products.
The program:
Provides training on current HIV cure research strategies, barriers to a cure and skills for communicating scientific results accurately to communities that will most benefit from cure research.
Supports the development of tools to broaden cure literacy to the wider community, including policy makers, the media and program managers.
Creates opportunities to interact with leading researchers and advocates in the field with a view to expanding the network of advocates working in HIV cure.
The Cure Fellowship
Following the Academies, AVAC, in partnership with IAS and AHCC, awards at least one fellowship to Academy alumni to support the development of a project that meets one of the following criteria:
Advocacy program to mobilize HIV cure research in-country;
Strengthens networks and tools for cure advocacy in local contexts;
Develops and provides HIV cure education and information for communities affected by HIV
Since 2017, 134 advocates have participated in Advocacy-for-a-Cure Academies. The majority represent communities across Africa that are most burdened by HIV. These advocates have gone on to serve on community advisory boards, consult with major research and pharmaceutical entities, and serve as prominent guest speakers at major scientific convenings.
Back in their communities, these advocates have created programs, resources and in-country trainings to help people understand cure research. They make the science accessible and promote community support for accelerated research in their local context. And, last but not least, they identify and inspire future Academy participants, growing the field of cure advocates.
Contact
For more information on this program, reach out Jessica Salzwedel at [email protected].
Resource Tracking
Tracking investments and funding trends in HIV prevention and cure R&D
Prevention Funding in 2021
Since 2004, AVAC has been a member of the Resource Tracking for HIV Prevention Research and Development Working Group (formerly the HIV Vaccines and Microbicides Resource Tracking Working Group) which annually collects information on the amount invested in research and development for HIV prevention. In 2013, the working group began a collaboration with the International AIDS Society (IAS) to produce a report tracking investment in cure research and development.
Tracking Trends Over Time
A lack of consistent data on funding made it hard to monitor the direction and priorities of research and development (R&D) in HIV prevention and cure. How money was spent from year to year, what technology was being given priority and how funders were changing was unknown. AVAC’s work alongside partners have changed that – making it easy to track global spending and keep an eye on developments in HIV prevention and cure, and giving advocates an evidence base from which their advocacy can build. The latest data are available at hivresourcetracking.org or as a PDF download.
About the Project
The annual HIV Prevention Research & Development Investments report tracks what technology is being prioritized and areas that need more investment. In 2014, the Working Group expanded its focus to analyze grants going towards HIV cure research. All of this can be used to fight for fact-based policy changes—especially those impacting R&D funding.
How the Prevention Data is Collected
Investment figures for HIV prevention R&D are collected annually via an email survey. The most recent report looked at 215 funders across public, philanthropic and commercial sectors. The two types of resources tracked are investment — annual payments by funders — and expenditures, which are resources directly spent on R&D during a particular year.
Funding is broken up into two categories, investment and expenditure because:
some funders may provide funding for multiple years in advance;
there may be delays in research projects; and/or
organizations may use the funds over a period extending beyond the year they received the money.
Financial support for the most recent project was provided by AVAC. In past years, funding was also provided by the IAVI, UNAIDS, the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) and the Alliance for Microbicide Development (AMD).
Contact
If you are a funder of HIV prevention and cure R&D, we would love to hear from you. You can participate in the HIV Research Investment Survey by getting in touch at [email protected].
