HIV Vaccine Research and Design (HIVRAD) Program (P01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Grants to USA nonprofit and for-profit organizations, IHEs, government agencies, and tribal organizations for research related to AIDS and HIV. Funding is intended to support projects and studies that are multi-faceted and multi-disciplinary and that address scientific queries relevant to preventive vaccine discovery research.
Applications for five years of support should include plans that have advanced past the exploratory stage and include preliminary data. Applications aimed at developing or optimizing a specific vaccine platform should lay out a research pathway with clear decision points. Extensive evaluation of vaccine concepts in non-human primates may be included. Small animal models, such as transgenic humanized mice, may be included.Applications may address, but need not be limited to:Approaches to elicit durable and broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV, SIV, and/or SHIVIdentifying correlates of vaccine-induced immune protection to HIV/AIDSStructural studies as they relate to designing HIV immunogensInduction and properties of protective non-neutralizing antibodiesImproved animal model systems and challenge viruses to address vaccine efficacyApproaches to increasing the immunogenicity of HIV antigens (e.g., adjuvants, nanoparticles)Vaccine design to better address the heterogeneity of HIVDeveloping or improving viral, bacterial, or other vaccine vectorsDetermining how immune cells can be mobilized to the portal of infectionInvestigations into the role of glycan structures on immunogenicity, antigenicity, and infectivityInvestigations into innate immunity to alter the outcome of infection.Research Programs funded under this FOA will be comprised of multiple components. These are:Administrative CoreResearch ProjectsScientific CoresExternal Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)Annual MeetingsFor additional information, see the URL for Full Text, below.