Postdoctoral Training in Global AIDS Prevention Research

ABSTRACT This is a competing continuation of the UCLA training program to prepare physician and social/behavioral scientists for academic research careers focused on integrated biomedical-behavioral (i.e., biobehavioral) approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention in diverse global settings. Despite remarkable advances in prevention of new HIV infections and treatment of HIV disease, significant challenges remain that highlight the need for integrating behavioral science and biomedical approaches. The renewal of our highly successful training program will help ensure that a new generation of scientific leaders is prepared to take us forward into the next era of HIV research, specifically by providing training to integrate behavioral and biomedical approaches to preventing HIV/AIDS globally. To reflect our biobehavioral approach, each year one new trainee will be a physician specializing in adult or pediatric infectious diseases (i.e., an ID fellow), and one a social/behavioral scientist with a doctoral degree from a relevant field such as public health, sociology, or public policy. We will ensure all trainees receive rigorous social-behavioral science training and in use of biomarkers and conducting research with clinical context and relevance. All trainees will be provided training and support to launch their careers as independent investigators in HIV/AIDS prevention research. A successful graduate of the training program will have: The option of securing a master’s degree; Completed at least one major HIV prevention research project; Participated in several other research projects; Presented in at least one major scientific conference; Published as a first author in leading scientific journals; and Secured funding from the NIH or other agencies to take into a first faculty. These program goals are achieved through a variety of seminars, mentoring, secondary data analyses, and the design and implementation of original data collection conducted in our collaborating field sites. A new focus of our program will be integration of multidisciplinary training activities for all of the MD and PhD trainees to foster biobehavioral approaches for solving the major problems that preclude halting the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Our program is especially designed to prepare young scientists for the future of the HIV/AIDS funding environment that will require competency in biobehavioral approaches and we will model this integration in our co-leadership and our research settings that emphasize Team Science as a building block for success.