Marseille 2007
Marseille 2007
Abstract book
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Abstract #14  -  The Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Network
Session:
  6.2: Posters A (Poster) on Monday   in  Chaired by
Authors:
  Presenting Author:   Dr Michael Blank - University of Pennsylvania, United States
 
  Additional Authors:  Dr David Metzger, Dr Gina Wingood, Dr Ralph DiClemente,  
Aim:
The Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Network (SBSRN)is intended to link the 20 Centers for Aids Research (CFARs) funded by the NIH in the United States. The SBSRN is intended to 1) to initiate mechanisms to encourage sharing resources; 2) to initiate mechanisms to encourage sharing resources, 3) to host an annual scientific meeting; 4) to provide a forum for a national mentoring program for junior and transitional investigators, and 5)to produce specific plans for multi-site research.
 
Method / Issue:
In November 2005 a small group of behavioral and social sciences investigators from Penn and Emory began planning for the establishment of a network between scientists involved in HIV prevention and treatment research. The purpose of this network was threefold. First it was intended to foster multi-site collaborations between Behavioral and Social Scientists. Second, it was intended to share strategies on how Behavioral and Social Scientists could be better partners with basic and clinical scientists as well as how the basic and clinical sciences could be better used to inform behavioral and social science research. Finally, the Social and Behavioral Science Research Network (SBSRN) was explicitly intended to provide a forum for the exchange of the most recent information in the behavioral sciences regarding HIV/AIDS and to mentor the next generation of Behavioral Social Scientists engaged in social and behavioral science surrounding HIV prevention and treatment. It is hoped that combining the intellectual capital and synergies among the community of scientists engaged in this work will invigorate state-of-the-art science in this area. In the NIH roadmap, the research teams of the future are described as problem-oriented, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams. We believe the SBSRN provides the foundation upon which these teams can be built and directed toward HIV research. The SBSRN planning meeting was held in Atlanta, GA, March 27-28, 2006. The meeting was hosted by the Emory CFAR and jointly supported by the Penn and Emory CFARs. Representatives from 14 CFARs attended this two-day meeting that focused on the development of consensus on the importance of the Network and its mission. The following mission statement was adopted: To articulate a national research agenda for the Social and Behavioral Science Research Network across CFARs and to stimulate cross CFAR sharing of resources and future collaborative research. This meeting also established the Networks research priorities, and the development of an outline of the structure of the first national scientific meeting of the CFAR SBSRN. to support the efforts of individual CFAR Cores and investigators. These shared resources include web-based tools useful in the preparation of interdisciplinary research applications, a common database for tracking service delivery in social and behavioral sciences, a national directory, and a cross CFAR list-serve to speed communication and enhance collaborations. The group felt that the value-added of the SBSRN to each CFAR had the potential to encourage each site to include support for this effort in their respective competitive renewal applications, and that the SBSRN serves as an exemplar for how cross-site collaborations can be intentionally engineered.
 
Results / Comments:
A supplement from NIAID to the Penn CFAR allowed the first national SBSRN conference to be held in Philadelphia, PA October 10-13, 2006. Prior to the meeting, the SBSRN solicited concept plans from identified speakers for research within specified priority areas that reflect its mission and maximize the resources of the CFAR program. Concept plans that involved multiple CFARs as well as other social and behavioral scientists who were unaffiliated with CFARs, and used multiple core resources were selected for presentation and discussion with a focus on protocol development. Each research area session began with a nationally prominent invited speaker who provided an overview of the current state of science within that area. These overview talks were followed by breakout groups that focused on selected research concept plans that have been submitted by participants prior to the meeting. Each concept was critiqued and fully discussed by the attendees. Our goal for these sessions was to provide the investigators with feedback on design, measurement, specific ideas for collaboration and guidance on the most appropriate funding mechanism. We have been successful in obtaining a commitment from JAIDS, to publish the Proceedings of the First National SBSRN Scientific Conference in the August, 2007 issue. We believe JAIDS an other such journals provides appropriate vehicles to highlight the scientific themes of the conference and the role of interdisciplinary, collaborative research.
 
Discussion:
The SBSRN has requested support from NIMH for three thematically driven meetings aimed at promoting integration of behavioral and biomedical sciences in HIV research, Biomedical Prevention Interventions to be hosted at the University of Alabama Birmingham in 2007, Technologies and Applications in HIV Prevention Science to be hosted by the University of Washington in 2008, and Vulnerable Populations and Translational Research to be hosted jointly by Brown and Harvard Universities in 2009. Further, these meetings will be open to any interested scientists, regardless of CFAR affiliation. The selection of speakers is intended to avoid duplication of existing behavioral and social science meetings. With input and support from our National Planning Committee, we hope to highlight data that reflect emerging themes in HIV prevention and therapeutics with clear interdisciplinary opportunities. Thus, many of the speakers to be scheduled are not typical presenters at more behaviorally oriented meetings. We have also avoided population-specific talks in favor of topics that have application and interest across those populations most severely impacted by HIV and AIDS, both domestically and internationally.
 
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