California HIV/AIDS Research Program

California HIV/AIDS Research Program (CHRP) Overview of Vision, Strategic Planning Process and Implementation

August 14, 2007

During 2006, CHRP began an extensive process of strategic planning and stakeholder input to identify and frame new strategies seen as essential to the program’s ability to achieve this newly articulated vision. They include the need for:

Strategically targeting research dollars to critical areas.
Leadership in identifying research topics and critical issues to address HIV/AIDS in California.
Greater visibility of the contributions of HIV/AIDS research towards advancing prevention of HIV infection and the care of people with HIV/AIDS.
Strengthened dissemination of research findings and products, and communication with community based organizations, public agencies, and policy makers to have a greater impact on the epidemic.
Support for new scientists engaged in high priority areas of HIV/AIDS research.
Support for innovative ideas that will advance HIV/AIDS science.
Rapid and responsive policy research to inform HIV/AIDS policy at the state and national levels.
Increased emphasis and focus on more applied and translational HIV/AIDS research.

As a result of the input and strategic planning process CHRP articulated the following vision:

CHRP envisions a California a decade from now where systems of research, prevention and care for people with HIV, particularly those addressing communities disproportionately affected by the disease, position California as a national leader. Furthermore, significant progress in reducing HIV transmission, improving HIV-related treatment and care, and enacting evidence-based public policy in California positively impacts state, national and global efforts to end the pandemic.

The strategic planning process led to the adoption CHRP’s new mission statement:

The California HIV/AIDS Research Program funds innovative basic, clinical, social, behavioral, and policy research, and provides scientific leadership by convening California stakeholders from diverse backgrounds with expertise in ending the human suffering caused by HIV disease.

The program and its Advisory Committee, the California HIV/AIDS Research Advisory Council, articulated and adopted six strategic goals to focus the program’s strategies over the next five years:

Strategic Goal 1: To catalyze leadership for the discovery of evidence-based solutions for HIV/AIDS issues critical to California, the nation, and the world.

Strategic Goal 2: To stimulate increased public and private investment towards the discovery of evidence-based solutions for emerging and critical HIV/AIDS issues.

Strategic Goal 3: To provide resources to address strategic HIV/AIDS research priorities critical to California.

Strategic Goal 4: To actively encourage innovation in HIV/AIDS research.

Strategic Goal 5: To promote the application and real-world impact of California-supported HIV/AIDS research, particularly within the communities disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS.

Strategic Goal 6: To develop a next generation of scientists, providers, advocates, and policy makers from diverse backgrounds committed to exerting leadership to advance science in HIV/AIDS.

Details of the strategic plan are currently being finalized. The plan recommends CHRP proactively elicit input from its stakeholders about research priorities for California. These stakeholders include researchers (spanning different disciplines), policy makers, HIV/AIDS service organizations, advocacy groups, state-wide planning bodies and PLWHA.

Based on program staff input and its Advisory Council’s recommendations, CHRP will be phasing in the implementation of its new strategic plan for all of its program areas over the next several years, and evaluating the implementation processes and outcomes.

Overview of Strategic Plan Implementation for Research on Systems of HIV Prevention and Care

The first programmatic area piloting the implementation of the strategic plan and gathering input for research priorities is Systems of Prevention and Care Research. This research area focuses on systems of prevention and care and encompasses both basic and applied studies that examine access, availability, utilization, costs, quality, delivery, organization, policy and financing related to organizations and service delivery systems. The research is intended to produce new knowledge that can be applied to improve prevention and care services for HIV affected persons and populations. The disciplines supporting such research include health economics, organizational psychology, policy analysis, systems analysis, epidemiology, sociology, demography, medicine, and public health, etc.

Using a web-based survey, stakeholder input was solicited for this area of research in August and September of 2007. A stakeholder input meeting was held on Oct. 24, 2007 in Oakland, and information gathered through the survey and this meeting will be incorporated into the strategic planning for this area of research.

A survey solicitation covering three additional research areas was released in January, 2008. These research areas are Social and Behavioral Research, Clinical Research, and Basic Biomedical Research, and combined with Research on Systems of Prevention and Care cover the spectrum of HIV/AIDS research. Three follow-up stakeholder input meetings, one for each of the three additional areas of research, will be held in April, 2008. As was the case for the Oct. 24 meeting, the purpose of these meetings is to gather stakeholder input that will be used to help guide CHRP in developing the best strategies for funding HIV/AIDS research that is responsive to the changing epidemic and appropriate for California.

The survey asks stakeholders to list up to three specific research priorities in one or more of the three above research areas. It is up to the respondent to determine which areas or areas are appropriate for responses. The survey also seeks comments on existing CHRP funding opportunities in one or more of the three research areas.

The follow-up input meetings will engage stakeholders to discuss research priority areas further within the context of CHRP’s goals and values. Background information will be provided (results of the survey, background information on CHRP funding history, etc.). Each meeting will be professionally facilitated and the expected outcome of each meeting is a compilation of research priorities and recommendations to inform CHRP activities over the next 3-5 years in the areas of Social/Behavioral, Clinical, and Basic Biomedical Research. Following the input meetings, CHRP, in conjunction with its Advisory Council, will determine funding strategies for the next 3-5 years.

Please check back here for updates regarding any of CHRP’s other programmatic areas and general updates to the implementation and outcomes of CHRP’s strategic planning process.