Deadline: 7 January 2020
The U.S. Department of State’s National Institute of Health (NIH) is currently seeking proposals for its program titled “Targeted Basic Behavioral and Social Science and Intervention Development for HIV Prevention and Care .
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages innovative, targeted basic behavioral and social science and intervention development research to reduce incident HIV infections and improve the health of those living with HIV. This FOA encourages research designed to (a) conduct basic behavioral and social science research that is needed to advance the development of HIV prevention and care interventions, (b) translate and operationalize the findings from these basic studies to develop interventions and assess their acceptability and feasibility and (c) conduct tests of the efficacy of HIV prevention and care interventions.
Areas of Interest
High priority areas of research include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Targeted basic behavioral and social science research to identify and quantify micro- and macro-level social and behavioral determinants that may mediate or moderate HIV acquisition, transmission and care:
- Studies to identify the societal, environmental, genetic, developmental, and personality factors associated with the risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV;
- Research to further theoretical development and models that incorporate biological-behavioral-social-environmental interactions as they relate to HIV-associated risk, vulnerability, disease progression, and resilience.
- Studies to advance combination behavioral, social and biomedical intervention approaches:
- Studies to optimize the provision of brief, evidence-based counseling that results in durable adherence to product (i.e., cART, PrEP, microbicides, vaccines, including long-acting formulations) and risk reduction guidelines;
- Studies to understand suboptimal uptake and adherence to combination approaches in key populations.
- Studies to increase intervention potency and durability:
- Studies to identify modifiable factors that affect the durability of effective prevention interventions including biomedical HIV strategies and develop strategies to enhance adherence and long term maintenance among those most highly impacted by HIV;
- Studies to develop novel approaches for augmenting the impact of interventions to promote HIV treatment adherence and persistence.
- Studies to enhance prevention and treatment efforts targeting populations highly impacted by HIV:
- Studies to understand and decrease the differential effects of biomedical HIV prevention strategies in different populations; disparities can be racial/ethnic, gender and/or age-related;
- Studies of integrative approach to prevention and care for persons with co-morbidities that may affect HIV risk and treatment; studies are particularly encouraged to address the needs of persons with psychiatric diagnoses and/or distress, persons exposed to violence or abuse, and youth;
- Studies to develop and evaluate prevention interventions which make use of new technologies to identify recent infection or phylogenetic linkage, assess community- or network-level risk for transmission, or identify co-factors for HIV transmission.
- Identification of novel intervention approaches and methodologies that address multiple levels of influence on HIV acquisition, transmission, and care:
- Studies using new and expanding social media and communications technologies to recruit, enroll, and retain persons at high risk for HIV (e.g., young men and women, MSM, transgendered individuals) for HIV testing, prevention efforts, and linkage to care;
- Studies to develop and test novel validation of HIV-related mHealth outcomes.
- Studies to identify and integrate biological markers and novel behavioral indicators associated with the exposure to, acquisition or transmission of HIV, and adherence to care;
- Studies that utilize modeling and simulation techniques and systems science approaches (e.g., network analyses and systems dynamics approaches) to identify the most effective core elements of interventions and estimate and test when and where and under which conditions they should be targeted to an individual, social group, family, community, health care or other system to achieve maximum benefit;
- Studies to develop and use adaptive designs and decision rules that are based on participant characteristics and responses to intervention, in order to customize and tailor intervention strategies;
- Studies to further elucidate individual-level risk by using geospatial, neighborhood mapping or other techniques to determine and target community-level risk.
- Studies to incorporate context into the development and testing of interventions:
- Studies to address modifiable social and structural determinants of HIV infection that may facilitate or impede the outcome of interventions;
- Studies to enhance understanding of how social and sexual networks influence HIV risk and transmission and develop network based approaches to improve HIV prevention and care;
- Research on mechanisms by which cultural experience impacts neurobehavioral and HIV acquisition risk trajectories, and identify time-points and circumstances to optimally target intervention;
- Studies to develop and test innovative community, clinic and provider level strategies and combination behavioral-biomedical HIV approaches that reduce the risk of infection in high prevalence communities, improve engagement in HIV medical care, and improve treatment adherence and retention;
- Studies to examine the impact of policies on the social environment that serve as facilitators or barriers to HIV prevention and care
Funding Information
The combined budget for direct costs for the two year project period may not exceed $275,000. No more than $200,000 may be requested in any single year.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible Organizations
- Higher Education Institutions
- Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
- Private Institutions of Higher Education
- The following types of Higher Education Institutions are always encouraged to apply for NIH support as Public or Private Institutions of Higher Education:
- Hispanic-serving Institutions
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
- Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs)
- Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
- Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)
- Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education
- Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
- Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
- For-Profit Organizations
- Small Businesses
- For-Profit Organizations (Other than Small Businesses)
- Governments
- State Governments
- County Governments
- City or Township Governments
- Special District Governments
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Federally Recognized)
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized)
- Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government
- U.S. Territory or Possession
Other
- Independent School Districts
- Public Housing Authorities/Indian Housing Authorities
- Native American Tribal Organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Faith-based or Community-based Organizations
- Regional Organizations
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions)
Foreign Institutions
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are eligible to apply.
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are eligible to apply.
- Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed
How to Apply
Applications must be submitted online via given website.
For more information, please visit Grants.gov.