Scientific Working Group

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PROJECT SUMMARY SCIENTIFIC WORKING GROUP: INNOVATION AND IMPLEMENTATION FOR IMPACT ON ENDING THE HIV EPIDEMIC (EHE SWG) Chicago has made some progress in curbing the HIV epidemic. However, more effective prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and public health responses are each needed to accelerate improvements to the continuums of HIV prevention and care that will help meet goals of the Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America (EHE) initiative. Most new HIV diagnoses in 2017 were within the 20-29 year age group (38%), and among black/African Americans (55%) and MSM (63%) residents (Chicago Department of Public Health. HIV/STI Surveillance Report 2017. December 2018). One study found that only 43% of non-Hispanic black/African American MSM in Chicago were maintained in PrEP care at 12 months. Limits in antiretroviral treatment (ART) access/success across all race/ethnicities compound these challenges to HIV prevention. Fewer than half of all persons living with HIV (PLWH) in Chicago achieved viral suppression in 2017 (HIV/STI Surveillance Report 2017). The Innovation and Implementation for Impact on Ending the HIV Epidemic Scientific Working Group (EHE SWG) has the broad objective of maximizing progress in Chicago toward a goal of EHE: reduce new HIV infections in Cook County by 90% in 2030. It will catalyze and develop new collaborations and innovative proposals that fill prioritized gaps and address emerging opportunities. The EHE SWG fully utilizes our strong academic expertise, and engages diverse and able community partners, to efficiently learn how to advance implementation of new strategies and spread the successes. In addition to emphasizing local partnerships with community-based service providers already working productively with the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research (TC CFAR), the EHE SWG will start new partnerships with community organizations and service providers across Chicagoland. The EHE SWG will also learn and adapt lessons from the implementation of EHE administrative supplements to CFARs and ARCs around the country (as the TC CFAR-led Implementation Science Coordination, Consultation, and Collaboration Initiative (ISC3I) shares information across all EHE awardees, the NIH, and DHHS). The specific aims of the EHE SWG are: (1) to ensure efficient dissemination of information about funding opportunities for service delivery/evaluation and implementation research from the evolving DHHS EHE initiative as they emerge and engage any and all interested Chicagoland partners in collaborations addressing EHE goals; (2) to form, support, and regularly refresh “action teams” developing topic-focused research-practice partnerships aligned with EHE goals and local public health priorities; (3) to ‘pre-position’ proposal-focused research-practice partnership action teams to submit responsive and competitive proposals for transformative innovations they develop with input from TC CFAR implementation science experts and other relevant TC CFAR resources, as soon as EHE-focused funding opportunities are issued from the NIH (via annual CFAR Administrative Supplement RFAs), CDC, or HRSA.