Research Training Grant Aims to Improve HIV Care

AMPATH partners have embarked on a new five-year D43 training grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) entitled “Training in HIV Implementation Science and Dissemination in Kenya (HIV-ID).”

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The grant project will develop research capacity to improve care for people living with HIV (PLHIV). Moi University College of Health Sciences, including Moi University School of Public Health and School of Medicine, and the AMPATH Consortium of North American and European universities led by Indiana University will partner in the 5-year initiative.

As of 2021, Kenya was the home of approximately 1.4 million PLHIV and ranked eighth globally for the highest number of PLHIV residing within a country.

“Given this burden of disease, it is imperative that Kenyan investigators have the training to recognize gaps in the HIV prevention and care cascades, design implementation strategies to address those gaps, assess the effectiveness of these strategies, and translate findings into best practices to disseminate,” said Mabel Nangami, PhD, Moi University School of Public Health and co-principal investigator for the $1.4 million USD grant which runs through 2028.

“This grant will strengthen our educational infrastructure, expand local human resource capacity, promote sustained engagement in research, enhance mentorship capacity, and support research collaboration with county health teams” said Winstone Nyandiko, MBChB, MMED, MPH, Moi University School of Medicine and co-principal investigator.

The training of twelve masters and two doctor of public health (DrPH) students at Moi University School of Public Health (MUSPH) will be supported by the grant. This will include opportunities for master’s students representing county health teams to join MUSPH’s innovative Master of Science (MSc) in Field Epidemiology program.

Trainees will participate in dedicated coursework in HIV implementation and dissemination and professional development workshops. They will be mentored by a multinational panel of investigators through the AMPATH Consortium throughout their training, and receive funds to support their thesis/dissertation projects

“This training program will build sustainable research capacity for HIV implementation science and dissemination research and advance health equity,” said Kara Wools-Kaloustian, MD, Indiana University School of Medicine and co-principal investigator.

A one-year competitive post-graduate fellowship program to conduct research embedded in county health teams and training for five post-graduate fellows will support continued training with funding for pilot data collection.

The training program will be advised by an eight-member external Training Advisory Committee with Kenyan and North American members who have experience in developing and implementing curricula, developing and implementing research training programs, training early-stage investigators, building research capacity, and building collaborative multi-national research consortia.

The grant will support the development of courses in HIV epidemiology, implementation science, research translation and grant writing as part of the HIV-ID curriculum. Several of these courses will also be offered as workshops that will be open to county health teams, HIV program staff, and Moi University investigators. The HIV-ID training program will collaborate with several ongoing research training grants at AMPATH in data science, social determinants and HIV-related cervical cancer to further enhance research training opportunities at AMPATH.

Additionally, a focus on reciprocal innovation--the sharing of ideas, resources and innovations to address shared health challenges—will provide opportunities for Kenyan, North American and European trainees to work together on research and potentially replicate successful implementation science projects in the US and other partner countries.

A curriculum development meeting for key stakeholders from the academic institutions and county leadership will be held in July and the first cohort of HIV-ID trainees will begin in September this year.