Emory AIDS International Training and Researach Program

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Located in Atlanta, the Emory AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP) has established itself as a unique interdisciplinary training environment, producing highly qualified HIV/AIDS researchers. Through a competitive supplement in 2002, our list of collaborating countries from the first cycle of funding (Mexico, Georgia, Armenia, and Vietnam) has grown to include Ethiopia. The recent recruitment to Emory of Dr. Susan Allen from the University of Alabama at Birmingham further expands the Emory AITRP to include Zambia and Rwanda. This geographic growth greatly enhances the international relevance of our AITRP by including countries with nascent (Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union), emerging (Vietnam and Mexico), and established (our African partners) epidemics. Key accomplishments in our first Emory AITRP funding cycle include 18 long-term fellows awarded degrees from Emory, 25 short term trainees, more than a dozen in-country trainings, and 48 trainee-authored publications in peer reviewed journals, including 21 first authored articles. An additional 19 fellows from Zambia and Rwanda, who have authored more 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, including 4 as first author, received Masters degrees in Epidemiology through the Africa AITRP component established and directed by Dr Allen at UAB. Major strengths for this next funding cycle include 1) our innovative focus on inter-disciplinary cross-training; 2) our recent geographic expansion and the addition of Dr. Susan Allen, and 3) our collaboration with DHHS-funded agencies and programs, including Emory's Center for AIDS Research, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Emory's K30-funded MSCR program. The specific aims of our training program include: 1. To build human resource capacity in our collaborating countries by providing long, medium and short-term training and research opportunities in HIV/AIDS to a diverse group of outstanding young researchers. 2. To foster collaborative training and research among Emory, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and investigators in Mexico, Georgia, Armenia, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Zambia on HIV prevention and care. 3. To provide interdisciplinary cross-training, which is one of our program's signal successes to date, by having short-term training programs that will benefit all our trainees as well as trainees from other AITRP programs. 4. To build in-country research capacity that will support evidence-based translation of research into policy and practice in our collaborating countries. 5. To enhance south-south collaboration by taking advantage of existing regional centers of excellence in our collaborating countries.