HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies

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The HIV Center's three proposed Research Cores will provide resources that enable investigators to meet the Center's overall goal of advancing the science of Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic (EtE) by pushing the frontiers of rigorous behavioral, social science, and biomedical research and translating findings into equitable and sustainable public health policy and practice. The Development Core will complement this work with coordinated mechanisms for science innovation, internal monitoring, capacity-building, and networking. The Core has four Specific Aims: (1) to facilitate generation of innovative science likely to achieve maximum public health impact; (2) to ensure rigor, quality, and impact of HIV Center research; (3) to build research capacity of Early Stage Investigators (ESIs) as they prepare for independent research careers; and (4) to cultivate expertise in emerging ethical and policy issues that enhances equitable public health policy and practice. The Core will accomplish its Aims through a range of functions, including 1) support and monitoring of inter-disciplinary pilot studies that position both new and established investigators to obtain extra-mural funding to conduct groundbreaking HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment research; 2) monitoring of developments in the epidemic and scientific advances in HIV prevention and treatment across disciplines, ensuring timely exposure of investigators to these developments and research opportunities through coordination of Center-wide and inter-Core activities (e.g. Seminars, Workshops); 3) internal monitoring and support during all phases of studies from grant proposal development through implementation of funded projects (e.g., via Cross Core meetings); 4) providing mechanisms for sharing” lessons learned” in study implementation and grant reviews to advance the quality of Center research; 5) identifying research capacity needs of Early Stage Investigators (ESIs) and providing ESIs with access to Center research, capacity-building, and mentoring resources (e.g. manuscript and grant writing workshops); and 6) ensuring ethical and policy perspectives in Center research through individual and Cross-core consultations, interdisciplinary roundtable discussions on emerging topics such as use of PrEP with minors, and an internationally accessible online course on “HIV/AIDS Ethics and Policy.” Based in the Department of Psychiatry at New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, the Core Director, Theodorus Sandfort, Ph.D., is a social psychologist with expertise in sexuality and HIV research and the Director of the HIV Center's T32 postdoctoral training program. Based at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health (CU MSPH) Core Co-Director, Patrick Wilson, Ph.D., has expertise and NIH funding in HIV treatment and prevention among MSM, racial/ethnic minority populations, and adolescents and young adults and works extensively with students at CU MSPH. They are joined by a multidisciplinary team of established investigators with multidisciplinary research and mentoring records, including – as an innovation – experts in biomedical research ethics and policy analysis.