Funding Strategies to Foster Enabling Basic Science Research in the Development of an HIV Vaccine

Despite recent advances in other prevention strategies, an effective vaccine is still needed to guarantee a sustained end to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. However, the traditional approaches of vaccinology have thus far failed to produce an effective vaccine. More basic research may be needed to enhance our understanding of HIV immunity and the immunological principles behind vaccination and to leverage advanced technologies before applied research activities can be successfully used to develop a distributable HIV vaccine. US Government funding plays a crucial role in promoting, enabling, and advising independent scientists and experts to perform such research. This article was written to provide, to the broader scientific community, detail about the tools NIAID uses for research funding, how and why they were used for HIV vaccine development, and how they have been helpful; it is written from the perspective of a Program Officer's experiences while working for more than 25 years in the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) of NIAID at the NIH (the US National Institutes of Health). Several types of funding activities promote HIV vaccine development efforts, but three types of such activities and their impact on HIV vaccine development will be discussed in more detail.