Funding Call for Reducing Stigma to improve HIV/AIDS Prevention, Treatment and Care in LMICs

Deadline: 12 November 2019

The U.S Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking applications for its program “Reducing Stigma to Improve HIV/AIDS Prevention, Treatment and Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries”.

This program seeks to stimulate new and impactful research towards the development of stigma reduction interventions leading to better outcomes for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and on the quality of life of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) in LMICs.

The overall goals are to understand how to reduce stigma as a factor in HIV transmission, to eliminate or mitigate the aspects of stigma that limit beneficial health outcomes for the infected and at-risk individuals and communities, and to conduct exploratory studies to determine the feasibility of stigma-reduction interventions related to HIV prevention, treatment and/or care in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

Objectives

The objective of this FOA is to lay the groundwork for, or pilot, stigma-reduction interventions to improve HIV health seeking behavior across the HIV prevention and care continuum and improve biological and mental health outcomes for PLWH or their caregivers. In the context of an intervention, the areas of focus may include but are not limited to:

Adapting, developing, validating or implementing stigma-reduction interventions in PLWH. Target populations may include adolescents and/or youth, caregivers, and other key populations such as sex workers, people who inject drugs, transgender people, prisoners, and men who have sex with men, among others.
Adapting, developing, or validating measurement instruments to assess the success of the intervention in reducing stigma and in improving health outcomes.
Formative research on novel stigma-reduction interventions to understand the obstacles to seeking care.
Formative research to assess the complexities in layered or intersecting stigma that might lead to strategies to address the synergistic burden.
Studies to assess stigma-reduction interventions in specific social groups (for example, unmarried pregnant women); or across multiple groups (for example PLWH and their health care workers) linking to a health outcome such as decrease in transmission.
Studies to assess the association of structural level stigma-reduction interventions with better health outcomes; for example, modifiable structural factors such as health policy and its impact on health outcomes.
Tools for addressing stigma awareness in HIV+ adolescents, youth, young children and orphans and increase their participation in care-seeking and prevention services.

Award Budget

The award ceiling of this NOFO is $150,000.

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)
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions)
Non-domestic entities are restricted to higher education and/or research institutions and other non-profit organizations in LMICs.
Non-U.S. High Income Country Institutions are not eligible as the primary partner for a LMIC Institution, but may be included as consultants, especially if they present special opportunities for the proposed research. LMIC-U.S. or LMIC-LMIC partnerships between institutions are eligible.
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.