DR CHIDI V NWENEKA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AFRICAN AIDS VACCINE PARTNERSHIP AAVP and the Promotion of HIV Vaccines in Africa: Supporting Career Development for Young African Scientists 6th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention Rome 17 – 20 July 2011

HIV Vaccine – The Need Over 30 years of HIV,  ≈ 60 million people infected  ≈ 30 million dead  Still ≈ 7000 new infections per day  Still no cure for HIV infection  Majority of those who need ART cannot have it  For every one person starting ART, 2 – 3 new infections occur  Current prevention methods not optimal

Vaccine – not perfect, but still preferable “A vaccine with 50 percent efficacy provided to 30 percent of the population would reduce new annual infections by 34 percent (seventeen million infections avoided) over fifteen years and result in substantial financial savings” (John Stover et al., Health Affairs, 2007) A vaccine with only 30% efficacy, given to all those who need it will avert ≈ 45% of infections (Kaldor & Wilson, AIDS 2010)

Sub-Saharan Africa – Highest HIV Burden

Sub-Saharan Africa – extremely low contribution to HIV Vaccine R&D

AAVP – The Promise Vision: “An AIDS-free Africa through an effective vaccine” Mission: To promote HIV vaccine development for Africa through research, advocacy, partnership and contribution to capacity strengthening and policy development Overarching goal: To ensure significant African ownership of and contribution to all phases of development of an effective HIV vaccine suitable for use in Africa

AAVP’s Programme Approach HIV vaccine advocacy Resource mobilisation for HIV vaccine R&D Capacity Building AAVP Partnership support programme Promotion of the African HIV Vaccine Agenda Goal: To create an enabling environment conducive for AAVP’s partners to effectively conduct their business of HIV vaccine R&D in Africa Objective: To Identify and address ethical, regulatory and other issues that might affect effective conduct of HIV vaccine R&D in Africa by AAVP’s partners and stakeholders Goal: To increase the political support from African countries for HIV vaccine R&D Goal: To build the human and infrastructural capacity for biomedical research in Africa Goal: to increase the level of funding for HIV vaccine R&D and related activities from within Africa

AAVP’s New Programme Approach Young African Scientists Mentorship Programme Capacity building programme for IRBs & regulatory authorities Capacity strengthening programme for middle and senior level scientists in Africa HIV vaccine advocacy Resource mobilisation for HIV vaccine R&D Capacity Building AAVP Partnership support programme Promotion of the African HIV Vaccine Agenda

Young Scientists Mentorship Programme

TO INCREASE THE POOL OF AFRICAN BIOMEDICAL SCIENTISTS AVAILABLE FOR HIV VACCINE RESEARCH Goal

Programme Description Provide hands-on practical research experience to  Biomedical students in African tertiary institutions who are near their final year  Biomedical graduates of African tertiary institutions within their first five years after graduation in biomedical research. Trainees will trained to become leaders of research Run as two distinct Fellowships

The Fellowships Undergraduate Research Training Fellowships  For undergraduate biomedical students Young Investigators’ Training Fellowships  For graduates who left school within five years prior to the date of taking up the Fellowship

The Undergraduate Fellowship Goal: to stimulate the Fellow’s interest in biomedical research Fellows to spend 6 weeks in the field under supervision of a Mentor During the period focus will be on  Trainings on Research Methodology  Conducting literature search  Observing actual field & laboratory work Fellow to attend at least one strictly scientific conference

Young Investigators’ Training Fellowship Goal: to train young African graduates to become research leaders Fellows to spend between 12 – 36 months in an established research institution conducting research The research idea will be original, developed by the Fellow before award of the Fellowship Fellow to be attached by AAVP to a Mentor

Some Alumni encouraged to become Mentors Further Mentorship within the Alumni aimed at helping Fellows become fully independent researchers After training, Fellows join AAVP Fellows Alumni The Mentor then guides the Fellow for the rest of the Programme All Fellowship recipients will then be matched with appropriate Mentors Applicants who successfully advance their ideas into good research projects will be awarded the Fellowship Applicants with bright ideas placed on one month probationary mentorship to further develop their ideas Research ideas review for potentials Prospective Fellows submit their research ideas Call for interests

Training Curriculum Fellows to be guided by specific training objectives  Generating research ideas  Proposal development and proposal writing  Writing grant applications  Conducting literature search  Writing scientific papers including review articles  Presentations at scientific conferences  Manage a research project from inception to publication of research findings.

Other issues The Mentor will only serve as a guide The research work will be carried out by the Fellow Fellows will also be encouraged to enrol for a PhD with the Fellowship, especially Fellows requesting for a 36 month Fellowship After training, alumni can choose what they want to do thereafter Target: At least 10% retention in biomedical research

Summary HIV/AIDS has become a predominantly African problem Only Africans will eventually make a lasting difference AAVP has been set up to respond to this need It may be a hard and long journey But we will get there

Thank You