Deadline: 9-Nov-21
The National Institutes of Health has announced the applications for American Women: Assessing Risk Epidemiologically to support research that combines epidemiologic methods, digital technology, and data science approaches to better understand HIV prevention, transmission, and early care-cascade points for women living in the US.
While HIV prevention strategies have improved, and HIV incidence rates continue to decrease in the US, a critical need remains to strengthen and advance prevention particularly where declines appear to have stalled. The most recent surveillance data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) demonstrate that as of 2019, about 7,000 (19%) of all new HIV diagnoses were identified in women, with an increase among White women. Compared to the HIV incidence rate for White women in 2018, the rate of HIV infection was 13-times higher for Black women and 3-times higher for Latinas. New HIV case rates also remain high for transgender people; overall, 14% of transgender women in the US have HIV. Much higher prevalence rates are found among transgender minorities: 44% in Black transgender women, and 26% in Latina transgender women. These statistics point out the substantial vulnerabilities that remain, particularly in communities of color in the U.S.
This FOA seeks to support innovative, flexible, scalable technology-mediated epidemiologic studies focused on identifying vulnerabilities and informing on prevention and treatment of HIV in cisgender, transgender, and gender non-conforming women in the US. This will be accomplished through the development and analysis of knowledgebases that combine data from prospective cohorts of women with other sources of contextual data. In this context a knowledgebase is defined as centralized database that supports collecting, organizing, retrieving, and sharing information.
Funding Information
- Issuing IC and partner components intend to commit an estimated total of $4.65 million to fund 3-5 awards in FY 2022.
- The scope of the proposed project should determine the project period. The maximum project period is 5 years.
Eligible Projects
Projects of particular interest include, but are not limited to those that:
- Identify optimal approaches to enrolling HIV vulnerable women, measuring risk and verifying HIV and other STI infections
- Use the knowledgebases to describe in detail the individual and contextual factors that influence behavioral vulnerability to HIV among subgroups of women, and ameliorate vulnerabilities
- Employ flexible scalable approaches for data acquisition and analysis
- Use data science approaches to conduct network analyses and prediction models. Tools such as digital trace, viral phylogenetics, geospatial analysis, machine learning can be used to define networks, prevention strategy prediction in space and time
- Conduct simulation and other types of modeling, to explain patterns in social networks, behavior risk, and health-seeking behaviors, in space and time
- Develop models to anticipate responses to HIV prevention messages for different subgroups of behaviorally vulnerable women
- Assess the role of substance abuse or alcohol misuse in women as related to behavioral vulnerability to HIV and other infectious diseases (STIs, hepatitis). Construct models to understand these interactions more deeply
- Evaluate mental health as a determinant of HIV exposure and engagement in prevention strategies
- Interrogate determinants of HIV PrEP awareness, uptake, and adherence
- Develop optimal approaches to reach HIV vulnerable women across the lifespan
- Process and visualize data, as well as predictions to display knowledge gained from AWARE research, aimed at informing the scientific community and organizations responsible for HIV and other STI-related health programs.
Eligibility Criteria
- 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)
- Local 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)
- Federal Governments
- 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.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=335274