The purpose of this FOA is to stimulate much needed research in an important area of public health significance:
prevention of new HIV infections among adolescents at risk, and the identification of, linkage to and retention in care of, and long term viral suppression among youth living with HIV in
low-to-middle income countries.
These settings must have an HIV epidemic density defined by UNAIDS estimates as either a country 1) in which at least 200,000 people are living with HIV and the number has not decreased by more than 5% over the last 2 consecutive years of available data or 2) has an HIV prevalence of 3% or more.
The UG3/UH3 Phased Innovation Awards Cooperative Agreement involves 2 phases.
Funding for a UG3 phase will be used to demonstrate sufficient preparation, feasibility and capacity to meet foundational milestone targets specific to the work proposed.
A UG3 project that meets its milestones will be administratively considered by NICHD and prioritized for transition to the UH3 award.
Applicants responding to this FOA must address objectives for both the UG3 and UH3 phases.