NCUIH Recommends NIH Collaboration with Urban Indian Organizations for Future HIV Research Initiatives

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On March 28, 2024, the National Council of Urban Indian Health (NCUIH) submitted a response to a request for information (RFI) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of AIDS Research (OAR) to inform the development of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026-2030 NIH Strategic Plan for HIV and HIV-Related Research (“Strategic Plan”). As part of its response, NCUIH urged NIH to prioritize research efforts that address the specific needs and challenges faced by American Indian and Alaska Native communities and requested that NIH partner with urban Indian organizations (UIOs) to improve research implementation.

Background

NIH OAR oversees and coordinates all HIV research activities across NIH, including both extramural and intramural research, research training, program evaluation, and HIV research infrastructure and capacity development. NIH supports a comprehensive portfolio of research representing a broad range of basic, clinical, behavioral, social, translational, and implementation science on HIV and associated coinfections and comorbidities. The Strategic Plan provides a framework for developing the NIH HIV research budget, articulates HIV research priorities, and provides information about NIH HIV research priorities to the scientific community, Congress, HIV-affected communities, and the public at large. The current strategic Plan is for FY 2021-2025.

The RFI requested responses to the FY 2026-2030 Strategic Plan’s four goals:

  • Goal 1: Enhance discovery and advance HIV science through fundamental research.
  • Goal 2: Advance the development and assessment of novel interventions for HIV prevention, treatment, and cure.
  • Goal 3: Optimize public health impact of HIV discoveries through translation, dissemination, and implementation of research findings.
  • Goal 4: Build research workforce and infrastructure capacity to enhance sustainability of HIV scientific discovery.

NCUIH’s Recommendations

In its response to OAR’s RFI, NCUIH requested that NIH:

  • Prioritize research efforts that address the specific needs and challenges faced by American Indian and Alaska Native communities in combating HIV.
  • Partner with UIOs to reach urban American Indian and Alaska Native populations.
  • Support the development of a diverse and inclusive HIV research workforce by recruiting and retaining American Indian and Alaska Native researchers.
  • Host UIO listening sessions as it develops the Strategic Plan

NCUIH will continue to monitor the development of the FY 2026-2030 NIH Strategic Plan for HIV and HIV-Related Research.