The CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Initiative

The CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Initiative funds meritorious research grants and research personnel awards across the entire spectrum of HIV/AIDS research, including biomedical research; clinical research; research respecting health systems and services; and research into the health of populations, societal and cultural dimensions of health, and environmental influences on health.

In 2005-2006, CIHR administered more than $15 million on behalf of the Federal Initiative. In addition to this funding, CIHR contributed an additional $8.4 million in support of HIV/AIDS research and $11.3 million to research indirectly related to HIV/AIDS. This funding supported both investigator-initiated research grants and personnel awards as well as strategic programs in HIV/AIDS. In addition to being eligible for the dedicated funding and programs under the Federal Initiative, HIV/AIDS-related proposals are eligible to apply to all of CIHR's regular research funding and personnel award programs.

There are four funding streams for the Federal Initiative support for the CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Initiative. The Biomedical/Clinical and Health Services/Population Health streams support HIV/AIDS research grants and awards in these pillars of health research. The HIV/AIDS Community-Based Research Program supports knowledge development and capacity building initiatives of relevance to communities engaged in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The Community-Based Research Program has two streams -- the Aboriginal stream and the general (non-Aboriginal) stream. CIHR also provides core funding from the Federal Initiative to support the work of the Canadian HIV Trials Network .

CIHR will also play a leadership role, in collaboration with CIDA, in delivering the Discovery and Social Research component of the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, which aims to strengthen Canada’s contribution to research and research capacity focussed on the discovery of HIV vaccines and on related social and behavioural issues. A key objective is to promote greater involvement and collaboration among researchers in Canada and in low- and middle-income countries.