RESEARCH CORES

The Administrative Core (Anke A. Ehrhardt, Core Director and Center Director) stimulates and advances innovative research through strategic planning, coordination, and grant and fiscal management. Dr. Ehrhardt is joined by senior investigators in the Senior Leadership Group: three Associate Directors (Heino Meyer-Bahlburg, Susan Tross, and Patricia Warne); the Training Director (Theodorus Sandfort); and two Deputy Directors (Finance and Administration: Masud Rahman; and Resources and Special Projects: Barbara Muller). In the Executive Committee, the Senior Leadership Group is joined by the Directors of the Cores and the Chairs of the Cross-Center Working Groups. In addition to an Administrative Core, there are six Research Cores.

The Interdisciplinary Research Methods Core (Core Director: Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg) provides expertise in sexological theory, qualitative and quantitative methods, and intervention and prevention science, while facilitating the integration of diverse methodological perspectives. The IRMC is a multidisciplinary advisory resource to project investigators on ethnographic evaluation of study populations; conceptualization of explanatory models for sexual behavior and sexual risk interventions; operationalization of outcome variables, mediators, and moderators; intervention process factors; and development and implementation of interventions.

The Statistics, Epidemiology, and Data Management Core (Core Director: Bruce Levin) addresses the biostatistical, epidemiological, and data management needs for Center-affiliated studies. It meets these needs in a centralized and unified manner, consistent with modern principles of conduct of randomized control trials for behavioral intervention studies and observational methods for comparative or descriptive non-experimental studies.

The Community Collaboration Core (Core Director: Robert Remien) ensures collaboration with community groups for research partnership and rapid dissemination of information. The CCC also analyzes the components of successful community-academic partnerships so that they may be applied to intervention science.

The Research Capacity Development Core (Core Director: Anke A. Ehrhardt) promotes the career development of junior investigators in HIV prevention and treatment research with a specific focus on sexuality, gender, and mental health. Junior investigators are guided and supported in obtaining increasingly independent grant support and in first-authoring research publications. The RCDC also supports new and innovative research in the HIV Center's priority areas by awarding seed money through the Pilot Studies Program.

The International Core (Core Director: Richard Parker) is a resource for the development of international research initiatives by HIV Center scientists and their in-country partners. The Core also develops comparative analyses of key theoretical and topical issues, particularly in the areas of sexuality and gender relevant to the global response to HIV, with special areas of emphasis in southern Africa and Brazil.

The Ethics, Policy, and Human Rights Core (Core Director: Ronald Bayer) addresses the ethical, policy, and human rights issues that are embedded in the HIV Center's scientific agenda, particularly in the area of sexuality, gender, treatment access, stigma, and discrimination. The Core plays a critical role in maximizing the application of national and international ethical standards in all HIV Center research. At the same time, the Core stimulates empirical research on the ethical, policy, and human rights dimensions of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.