ICMR Submission of Concept Proposals on “HIV/AIDS”

INDIAN COUNCIL OF MEDICAL RESEARCH DIVISION OF EPIDEMIOLOGY & COMMUNICABLE DISEASES

I. Background:

Call for Submission of Concept Proposals on “HIV/AIDS”

ICMR thrives to build a research capability of distinction to face the challenge of growing

HIV/AIDS in India and to establish research initiatives that have an interface with intervention and policy development to prevent and control the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Continuous

capacity building and hand holding to execute research projects is required to ensure active engagements for involving various institutes into research activities. In a collaborative effort with

National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) through its Strategic Information Management under the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP-4), a focus on ensuring translation of research outputs into programmatic action and policy formulation has been given. Keeping in mind the

ambitious HIV/AIDS targets, the priority research areas have been identified to address the emerging needs and to generate evidence to bridge the gaps in programme implementation.

Concerted efforts are therefore required to engage other institutes including NGOs, trusts to involve

them into research activities for HIV/AIDS. This project intends to leverage upon the existing mechanisms of strengthening research under NACP and plugging the visible gaps.

II. Interested Investigators are invited to submit a two - three page (A4 size) Concept Proposals pertaining to the following research areas:

1. Prioritizing key sub-populations by their size, presence in epidemiologically critical states, program coverage, accessibility to enhance cost-effectiveness (for the duration of 24months) 2. Study to develop a comprehensive holistic intervention package to reduce vulnerability to HIV infection and maintain virologic suppressed status among Transgender for the duration of 36 months 3. Identify strategies to enhance program coverage for currently ‘invisible’ key sub-populations using traditional and technology based interventions (for the duration of 24months) 4. Document IDU intervention strategies that have worked or not worked. Develop a prevention package and that to sustain linkage in treatment cascade among injecting drug users (for the duration of 24months)

5. To identify approaches and feasibility of rolling out viral load testing in different program settings i.e. HIV-Hep C setting; HIV-TB setting and low patient load settings (for the duration of 21 months) 6. Identify cost-effective approaches to enhance access to HIV testing including community based testing and self-testing (for the duration of 36 months) 7. Identifying enablers for retention of asymptomatic HIV infected individuals in treatment cascade (for the duration of 24months)

III. Instructions for submitting Concept Proposals:

A. A brief (two -three pages) Concept Proposals should be submitted under the following headings: i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x.

Title of the Study Need for the Study Objectives of Research Novelty of Research Brief Methodology Applicability & Proposed outcome Collaborators with assigned roles Duration of the study Ball park budget Competence of the PI (10-12 lines)

B. Instructions for submitting Concept Proposals: The applicants should submit Concept Proposals through the ICMR electronic project management system (ePPMS) http://icmrextramural.in/ICMR/ .

Interested researchers should avail the “Online submission of extramural research projects” facility available at the ICMR website (http://www.icmr.nic.in/ ). They would need to register themselves with the online submission system. Complete guidelines for the same have been provided on the website (www.icmrextramural.in ); the same should be strictly followed. PIs already registered need not register again.

Investigators should select Broad Area as “Epidemiology & Communicable Diseases” and major discipline as “HIV/AIDS”.

The Investigator should select Dr. Sumit Aggarwal as the Programme Officer.

In case of queries related to online submission, please contact ICMR online team at Ph: 01126588590. Email: onlineicmrteam@gmail.com C. Time Line: Last Date for submission of Concept Proposals / End Date: 21st October 2018 D. Review: Concept Proposals will be screened at ICMR. PIs of the selected Concept Proposals will be contacted within 2-4 weeks of the end date for submission of applications and will be requested for submission of Full proposals.

E. Contact Person: Dr. Sumit Aggarwal; Scientist C (Email: hiv.ecd2@gmail.com and 011-26588895 Ext: 297), Division of Epidemiology & Communicable Diseases (Room No. 315); Indian Council of Medical Research; Ansari Nagar; New Delhi – 110029; India.