The core leadership provides education/training and professional staff development to ensure the success of CFAR-supported international research programs. The leadership coordinates resources with other UAB CFAR cores whenever possible:
CFAR Clinical Core: Training provided through the Clinical Core includes programs in research ethics, good clinical practices (GCP) and quality assurance, research coordination, and host country regulatory capacity and support.
CFAR Biostatistics Core: The core works to identify data management needs and data analysis. Training in the proper development and analysis of clinical data is also provided.
CFAR Developmental Core: Young investigators are encouraged and provided guidance for the preparation of developmental proposals to fund pilot projects in international HIV research. Awardees of CFAR developmental grants participate in a mentoring program upon receipt of the award.
The core seeks to recruit students, residents, and fellows interested in international HIV research programs. Core leadership advises recruits on the appropriate contacts given their research interest and helps coordinate assignments for ongoing research projects. The core also works to develop fellowship programs for domestically trained MD’s graduate and post graduate students that provide field experience with HIV research projects, some of which are coordinated with Fogarty supported programs.
Fogarty-Ellison Fellowship Program through CIDRZ. In 2004, CIDRZ, in partnership with UAB, was selected as a training site for the inaugural year of the NIH-sponsored FIC/Ellison Medical Foundation’s Overseas Fellowship in Global Health and Clinical Research. CIDRZ was selected as a fellowship site because of its involvement in the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) and its ongoing participation in other NIH-funded research. The fellowship provides Zambian and American graduate-level students the opportunity to participate in a one-year training program in clinical research. The program begins with a one-month intensive training program at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland and is followed by 10 months of intensive clinical research training in Zambia.
CIDRZ HIVCorps. Now entering its 5th year, the CIDRZ HIVCorps initiative has trained over 80 expatriate and Zambian interns. This program provides students and recent graduates with the opportunity to participate in international HIV program and research initiatives. Individuals with an interest in each of the programmatic areas are encouraged to apply:
1. pediatric antiretroviral therapy scale-up,
2. tuberculosis and HIV co-infection,
3. HIV-related community outreach programs,
4. monitoring of clinical care during rapid scale-up,
5. data management and outcomes analysis,
6. perinatal HIV prevention services,
7. HIV/AIDS clinical trials,
8. women’s reproductive health,
9. laboratory systems in the developing world, and
10. grant writing and program development.
The full details of the internship program can be found at www.cidrz.org