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Australian Development Research Awards - 2008 Funding Round
Call for Applications

CLOSING DATE: 5pm AEST Friday 29th August 2008.
Sub-theme: HIV

This research will support efforts in the Asia Pacific region to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG 6) of halting and reversing the spread of HIV by 2015. AusAID has identified three priority foci in relation to HIV:

i) Community based prevention: New challenges arising for HIV prevention, and lessons learned from prevention among populations at greatest risk in Asia Pacific. Research should increase our understanding of innovative approaches to prevention (e.g. by considering factors relevant to risk and vulnerability) and inform the design of effective responses

ii) Gender: Improving understanding of the relevance of gender to causes and consequences of the HIV epidemic in Asia Pacific; and

iii) National response models: Research on factors affecting national responses in Asia Pacific that have constrained or supported effective leadership, policies and programs.

Fundamental to reversing the spread of HIV is a sustained prevention response and AusAID considers prevention to be the cornerstone of our International HIV Strategy. We are therefore interested in research that supports an intensified prevention response including analysis of HIV risks and vulnerabilities within a community context and frameworks for developing community based prevention.

Gender remains one of the under-explored dimensions of the epidemic. In their early stages, HIV epidemics often primarily affect men, particularly male injecting drug users, men who have sex with men and clients of sex workers. But women and girls are increasingly affected as epidemics progress. Prevention and care responses need to be better informed by gender analysis.

Finally, to reverse the epidemic requires a clearly defined national response that provides leadership and coordinates the efforts of the key players including donors, multilateral agencies, NGOs and relevant Ministries. Understanding better ways in which to organize national responses to ensure leadership on the issue and to achieve more effective policies and programs remains a key challenge in the region.

The three priority foci under the HIV sub-theme are:

1. Community based prevention.
2. Improving understanding of the relevance of gender to causes and consequences of the HIV epidemic in Asia Pacific.
3. National response models.

Documentation applicants should be aware of:
Meeting the Challenge: Australia ’s International HIV/AIDS Strategy, AusAID 2004
Helping Health Systems Deliver, a Policy for Australian Development Assistance in Health, AusAID 2006.
Relevant national HIV/AIDS policies, strategies and/or plans.

Eligibility Criteria under the HIV sub-theme

Proposals must focus on one or more of the following: PNG, Indonesia , Pacific island nations, Vietnam , Cambodia , Lao PDR, Burma , China (particularly Guangxi and Yunnan ), and East Timor .

Selection criteria under the HIV sub-theme
Research proposals will be assessed against whether the research:

has broad strategic implications and relevance for AusAID’s HIV engagement in the Asia Pacific region;

has links with ongoing delivery of AusAID funded activities or potential to inform the design of new AusAID activities; and

is aligned with the research priorities of the national HIV strategy/plan of a partner country.

Where partner country institutions are involved in the research, proposals should specify how the capacity of local researchers will be built as a result of the proposed project. Multi-country comparative studies, interdisciplinary studies and studies that adopt approaches that build the capacity of local researchers will be given preference.

http://www.ausaid.gov.au/research/awards.cfm