INTERNATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAM IN EPIDEMIOLOGY OF AIDS

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的培训计划建立在过去10年的成功和经验的基础上，因为它是一个重大的飞跃。越来越多的研究基础设施，越来越多的当地专业知识，越来越多的NIH资助的研究机会为这个迄今为止成功的艾滋病/结核病培训项目创造了一系列新的挑战和机遇，因为该项目适应了南非和该地区现有的和新兴的研究培训需求。该计划的44名长期和69名短期学员在科学上取得了成果（发表了515篇论文，包括《科学》、《自然》和《柳叶刀》），做出了重大的新科学贡献，为南非成功获得美国国立卫生研究院和其他国际资助发挥了重要作用，并担任了几个关键的领导职务。在上一个周期中，美国和南非之间持续的培训、研究和指导已经在一定程度上平衡了美国和南非之间的伙伴关系，但仍需要做更多的工作，特别是在治疗提供和治疗项目评估培训的挑战变得更加紧迫的情况下。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed training program builds on the successes and lessons of the previous 10 years as it takes a major leap forward. The growing research infrastructure, the growing local expertise, growing NIH funded research opportunities create a new set of challenges and opportunities for this hitherto successful AIDS/TB training program as the program adapts in response to meet the existing and emerging research training needs in South Africa and the region. The past 44 long-term and 69 short-term trainees of the program have been scientifically productive (515 publications including papers in Science, Nature, and Lancet), have made major new scientific contributions, have been instrumental to South Africa's success in securing NIH and other international grants and have taken up several key leadership positions. The continuum of training, research, and mentoring between the US and SA in the previous cycle has already gone some way towards equalizing the partnership between the US and South African but more still needs to be done, especially as the challenge of training for treatment provision and treatment program evaluations becomes more immediate. The emphasis of the program in this current cycle will be to identify critical gaps in existing centers of research excellence in South Africa and recruit, train and mentor appropriate enthusiastic, bright young and established mid-level investigators to provide them with the knowledge base and skills needed for the design and conduct of large-scale clinical trials (esp for vaccines and microbicides); pathogenesis studies, studies on the HIV/TB interaction and evaluation of the impact of ARV treatment. The goal is to strengthen existing and expand the number of independent HIV-related research teams in South Africa; strengthen South Africa's capacity to assume more of the country's and region's training needs and developing the skills needed to operationalize, implement and monitor the South African scale-up of AIDS treatment. Guided by the ongoing assessment of training priorities and with careful oversight from a balanced US-SA Scientific Advisory Committee, we will continue to provide as appropriate a variety of short-to-medium, and long-term training opportunities in the US and South Africa. Priority will be given to trainees from recognized AIDS research groups. Vigorous effort will go towards equalization of the training opportunities between the US and South Africa. This includes the establishment of a high quality masters program in epidemiology in South Africa taught initially jointly by US and South African faculty. A rich tapestry of AIDS and TB projects funded by NIH, CDC, and others offer diverse training and research opportunities to trainees for their placements. Overall, this program is designed to increase the number of independent established AIDS and TB researchers in South Africa so that there is local critical mass for future in-country mentorship and training. While this is a long-term goal, the proposed program sets about this task well armed with the most valuable lessons learnt in the last 5 years such as the importance of ongoing in-country mentorship, guidance and support, assistance with grant writing, and recruitment of candidates who are already in productive research groups.