The Third Coast CFAR Steering Committee would like to thank all of the teams that submitted internal concept proposals in response to the NIH RFA for CFARs to develop collaborative HIV Research Planning Partnerships with local CDC or HRSA-funded programs. The enthusiastic response demonstrates the breadth of innovative ideas among applicants and their commitment to cross-institutional partnerships as a necessary component of achieving HIV elimination in Chicago by 2030. The Steering Committee would also like to thank leaders from the Chicago Department of Public Health, AIDS Foundation of Chicago, and the Illinois Department of Public Health for their insight and feedback during the planning process.

Three teams will submit applications for an NIH Administrative Supplement through the Third Coast CFAR in May 2019. They include key practitioners, faculty, stakeholders, and evaluators from Howard Brown Health, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Lurie Children’s Hospital, the Chicago Department of Public Health, and other collaborators in the Midwest.  

Improving PrEP Uptake and Persistence among Cis-Gender Women of Color
Project Leader: Jessica Ridgway, MD, MS

PrEP Persistence and Implementation in High Burden Areas in the Midwest
Project Leader: Moira McNulty, MD, MPH

Next Generation Responses to HIV-related Events in Ending the Epidemic Contexts
Project Leader: John Schneider, MD, MPH

Innovation and Implementation for Impact on EtHE (I³EtHE) Scientific Working Group

Investigators, practitioners, and other collaborators from teams that submitted concept proposals are encouraged to join the CFAR’s Innovation and Implementation for Impact on EtHE (I³EtHE) Scientific Working Group. The I³EtHE SWG aims to aims to catalyze collaborations that promote the adoptions and integration of evidence-based practices, interventions, and policies into routine health care and public health that can help end the HIV epidemic. The group will work together, and as smaller “action teams”, to develop multiple proposals for funding via the Third Coast CFAR Developmental Core, future national CFAR administrative supplement RFAs, service grants from HRSA or CDC, as well as NIH research proposals. I³EtHE SWG activities will begin in spring 2019.