GILEAD Global Public Health Program

Award selections are made without discrimination based on ethnicity, race, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, genetic information or characteristic, gender identity and expression.

Recipients of these competitive awards under the program will be selected by a Committee comprised of leaders in the field of global public health (the “Scientific Review Committee” or the “Committee”). The Committee will review applications and select research proposals based on their scientific merit, feasibility, and innovation. Announcement of Award Recipients will be made at an awards acknowledgement session hosted by the Committee and senior representatives from Gilead.

Focus Area

• The Global Public Health Awards support the development of independent investigators from low and middle-income countries with an interest in supporting country driven research priorities to meet sustainable development goals for people infected with or at risk for viral Hepatitis (B,C,D) and/or HIV.
• Research proposals should be exclusively focused on implementation science or clinical epidemiology and be centered around strengthening the cascade for surveillance, screening, linkage to care/treatment, and prevention. Applicants need not focus on all aspects of the care cascade but can focus on any one or more of the aspects or helping populations enter and/or navigate the care cascade.
• Examples of research topics could include, however are not limited to:
  • Advancing health equity/addressing societal barriers to care
  • Community-led models (e.g., community ART refill groups, KP-led models, peer health models)
  • Person-centered models of care
  • Digital health initiatives including the use of AI, Machine learning to improve outcomes
  • Self-care including self-testing, self-collection/swabbing, etc.
  • Strategies to improve treatment outcomes
  • Barriers/facilitators to novel therapies (e.g., LA ART, LA PrEP)
  • Modelling (cost effectiveness/infectious disease dynamics)
  • Surveillance (e.g., burden of infection, drug resistance, causes/predictors of mortality and/or advanced HIV diseases
  • Stigma and discrimination as barriers to care
  • Addressing the challenges associated with an aging HIV population
• Research proposals can focus on more than one of the above topics, however, should be limited to populations living with or vulnerable to HIV and/or viral hepatitis (B,C,D).
• They encourage proposals that seek to work with the following:
  • People who engage in transactional sex
  • People who inject drugs
  • People who are incarcerated
  • Transgender people
  • Men who have sex with men
  • Children and adolescents  (<18 years)
  • Women
  • Migrant groups
• Awards granted under the program may not be duplicative of funding from institutional or hospital, other governmental, non-governmental, or industry sources. Applicants seeking an award for research projects that are currently receiving or may receive partial funding from other sources are required to submit appropriate evidence, including budget information related to the other sources, to demonstrate that there is no direct overlap in funding.

Funding Information

• Each award is funded up to $100,000 USD (inclusive of any indirect costs), to be paid in annual installments of up to $50,000 USD per year for 2 years.
• Funding for the second year is contingent upon submission of a progress report by each junior researcher and approval by the Chair of the Scientific Review Committee which oversees the program.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must meet the following requirements:
  • Hold an MD/MBChB/MBBS, PhD (or equivalent degree) at time of award
  • Currently working with an academic research institution or public health organization (e.g. Ministry of Health or within a hospital) and be on track to achieving a research scientist appointment, faculty appointment or other equivalent positions
  • Have a strong interest in public health research focused on HIV and/or viral hepatitis
  • Have a research mentor with extensive experience in the field of HIV and/or viral hepatitis or expertise in a discipline relevant to implementation science e.g., economics, engineering, psychology, anthropology etc. (co-mentorship is permissible)
  • Be able to devote at least approximately 50% of professional time to research for the next two years (versus administrative, patient care or teaching responsibilities)
  • Be able to complete the proposed research within the two-year award period, providing evidence (manuscript, presentation, or abstracts) resulting from the research.
• Citizenship
  • Applicants must reside in one of the following eligible countries:
    • Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States
    • South Asia
    • South East Asia
  • An applicant must be a citizen or permanent resident of the country/region in which they propose to conduct the research, or subject to the qualifications noted below hold a temporary study or non-immigrant visa. This visa must be valid and must allow the applicant to undertake the research over the two-year award period from the country/region in which they propose to conduct the research. This non-immigrant visa/work permit must be valid for the two-year award period or applicant must be able to establish that he or she is eligible for an extension, renewal or other status that will enable the applicant to perform the research in the applicable jurisdiction for the entirety of the two-year award period.

For more information, visit GILEAD.