The Partnership Project

Collaboration with the International Core of the HIV

Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies


Executive Summary


It is now widely recognized that the overwhelming impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is international. Confronting international AIDS must be a priority in any meaningful research response to the epidemic and is thus a key part of the HIV Center’s mission. The importance of this growing emphasis on international HIV/AIDS research has been concretely expressed in the organizational structure of the Center through the creation of a new International Core (IC) that provides leadership as well as scientific, technical, and administrative support for research activities in this area. The IC facilitates and supports the development of collaborative, cross-national, and comparative research on HIV/AIDS prevention. It emphasizes the key themes and research topics that have been identified as the focus for the HIV Center's work more generally and works together with the Center’s other Cores and with institutional partners in a number of developing countries.


The specific aims for the IC are:

  1. To stimulate, coordinate, and provide an ongoing resource for the development of international research activities on the part of HIV Center investigators working in collaboration with local institutions and investigators in Brazil, Namibia, and South Africa.

  2. To provide technical advice on the design and implementation of collaborative international studies, drawing on the areas of expertise and extensive personal and professional networks of HIV Center investigators, together with the extensive experience of IC faculty members in relation to the special challenges that must be addressed in cross-cultural international research.

  3. To develop comparative analyses, based on cross-national and cross-cultural research findings, of key theoretical and topical issues relevant to the global response to HIV and AIDS.

  4. To disseminate research findings related to the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, both to contribute to the development of scientific knowledge and to inform local and international policy formation.