Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS)

The Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) is a highly productive, vibrant, integrated, multidisciplinary center that conducts cutting-edge, high-impact HIV prevention research with robust institutional support from one of the highest ranked medical schools in the country. CAPS has a multidisciplinary faculty who conduct research driven by the center's mission. CAPS's significant contributions to HIV science are evident in the over 553 manuscripts published during the current award period (9/01/2016-6/30/2020). CAPS has continued to catalyze HIV science by obtaining NIH research grants at an almost 60% success rate and has grown a portfolio that addresses the continuum of HIV prevention and treatment. This portfolio spans basic social and behavioral science to intervention development, implementation and policy research. The significant and ongoing scientific contributions of CAPS necessitate the center continue its leadership in advancing the next generation of research required to end the HIV epidemic. We will continue to provide critical support to a cadre of world-class scientists who push disciplinary boundaries. This will be accomplished via an agile infrastructure of research cores designed to ignite scientific innovation and high-impact research with the depth and breadth necessary to reach global indicators for ending the epidemic. Overall, CAPS aims to: 1. Catalyze a strong scientific environment: Ignite timely, innovative, high-impact, multidisciplinary research to nimbly address current and emerging issues critical for ending the HIV epidemic, particularly those related to the center themes; 2. Strengthen the scientific workforce: Build the number, competence, capacity, and effectiveness of investigators, as well as community and public health partners, to conduct high-priority, high-impact HIV research that is responsive to addressing co-occurring and multiplicative factors driving HIV and HIV-related health systems; 3. Advance innovative methods: Promote the use of novel research designs, integrative methods, and cutting-edge technologies that are necessary for addressing the complex, multilayered, co-occurring, multiplicative factors and strategies that facilitate rather than hinder access to HIV prevention and treatment within HIV-related health systems; 4. Maximize public health impact: Bridge the gap between research and practice by supporting research that ensures that efficacious interventions and practices translate optimally into effective implementation within and across community and health systems. In summary, consistent with NIMH Division of AIDS Research's areas of high priority, CAPS will drive progress towards an end to the HIV epidemic by catalyzing and supporting innovative, multidisciplinary HIV research that integrates and sustains HIV prevention and treatment delivery across health systems to address the co-occurring and multiplicative factors that drive the epidemic.