Minority researchers can get help studying HIV in ethnic-minority communities

Psychologists in California have launched a new project to bolster the efforts of minority researchers studying HIV prevention in African-American and Latino communities.

The Collaborative HIV Prevention Research in Minority Communities Project provides technical assistance and helps secure additional funding for minority scientists who study HIV prevention in minority communities.

The program is built on the idea that minority researchers, because they have an intimate understanding of these ethnic communities, can transcend the language barriers and cultural differences that often impede mainstream researchers who study minority populations, says Barbara VanOss Marín, project director. The Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) at the University of California (UC), San Francisco, is operating the program with funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, and will be accepting applications until Jan. 15.

Marín says the objectives of the project are to:

Increase the quantity and quality of HIV prevention research that targets vulnerable ethnic-minority populations.

 Develop theory-based, culture-specific research methods that can lead to effective HIV-prevention interventions.

Marín and other leaders of the program want to assist in as many as 20 research projects over the next several years. Each year four new minority scientists, who must be faculty members in tenure-track positions or investigators in research institutions, will enter the program.

CAPS investigators, many of whom are highly experienced in research with ethnic minorities, will act as mentors to help these scientists develop research projects on HIV and minorities that will last for about two years. They'll help the researchers in such tasks as refining research questions, writing grant applications and analyzing data. CAPS can even provide such resources as data sets and seminars on research planning, measurement and other relevant topics.

'The guidance provided by these mentoring experiences and opportunities for networking will result in a substantial increase in high-quality HIV-prevention research by minority scientists studying minority populations,' says Marín, a professor at UC, San Francisco.

Participants will spend six weeks during each of three summers at CAPS, where they will design the studies, analyze the data and plan follow-up research.

During the academic year at their home institutions, they'll be conducting the actual research, applying for funding and writing final drafts of their research results. They'll receive salary support during the summers, and a total of up to $25,000 in additional funding for portions of the work conducted during the academic year.

For more information about the project or to obtain an application, contact Romy Benard-Rodriguez, Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, Collaborative HIV Prevention Research in Minority Communities, 74 New Montgomery Street, Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94105, (415) 597-9366, fax: (415) 597-9213; e-mail: rbenard@psg.ucsf.edu. To download an application, visit the project's web site at www.caps.ucsf.edu/capsweb/projects/minorityindex.html.

-S. Sleek



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