Since our founding in 1987, the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies has conducted research on HIV prevention, treatment, and care. In 2018, the HIV Center received its seventh renewal from NIMH to provide support for HIV-related research with the following three primary aims:

1. To catalyze intervention and implementation science research necessary to achieve the goals of "Ending the Epidemic" (EtE) by:

   • Advancing our understanding of individual, social, contextual and structural factors influencing HIV prevention and care outcomes.

   • Developing and implementing innovative strategies that incorporate new biomedical, behavioral, and social science advances while promoting equitable access to prevention and treatment.
     

2. To translate research into culturally and structurally competent practice and policy for maximum public health impact by leveraging and expanding our strong and diverse community, health-department, clinical, and academic collaborations in order to achieve EtE goals at scale.
   

3. To increase the capacity of current and future generations of scientists, service providers, and community and policy leaders to create and implement biomedical, behavioral, social, and structural HIV prevention and treatment interventions to meet EtE goals.

Research associated with the HIV Center comprises approximately 40 individual studies involving more than 100 investigators and staff from disciplines that include psychology, psychiatry, public health, anthropology, sociology, and social work. We work in New York City and State, nationally, and internationally.  In all, the HIV Center is one of the oldest and most productive continuously funded AIDS research centers in the United States.

Importantly, the HIV Center is committed to ending racism and promoting equity in the content of our research portfolio, our approach to training and mentoring, and in the manner in which our research is conducted.  Since the start of the HIV pandemic the most vulnerable communities, particularly Black and Brown people have been disproportionally burdened by the pandemic, principally due to disparities related to social determinants of health and underlying systemic racism.  By this 4th decade of the pandemic, we know that racism and its intersection with other forms of discrimination continue to drive HIV/AIDS incidence and affect all levels of the HIV treatment cascade in the United States and globally.  The COVID pandemic has further brought to light the inequitable burden on the very same Black and Brown communities bearing the highest burden of HIV and all of its negative social, economic, and health consequences.  While the HIV Center’s research has always focused on advancing optimal HIV prevention and treatment among communities most affected, including people of color, youth, and those who identify as LGBTQ, we are strongly committed to more deliberately and directly addressing racism, economic and health-care inequities, and social injustices in all of our work.