PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Over the last few years, the Division of Social and Behavioural Sciences (DSBS) – part of the School of Public
Health and Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town (UCT) – has grown rapidly in its capacity to
conduct high-quality, interdisciplinary social science research in priority HIV areas. Our recent growth,
however, has focused primarily on supporting Master’s students working on a wide array of HIV social science
research projects. To sustain and build on these gains, this D43 training program seeks to invest in developing
our advanced graduate training—of PhD and Postdoctoral Fellows—in our Division’s priority research area of
Gender and HIV. The overall objective of the BRIDGES training program is to strengthen UCT’s capacity to
serve as a global leader in gender and HIV social science research by: a) helping develop the next generation
of researchers capable of conducting rigorous, interdisciplinary social science research on gender and HIV
(Aim 1), and b) strengthening the institutional training platform for innovative gender and HIV social science
research in South/sub-Saharan Africa in priority areas aligned with both local needs and NIH HIV research
priorities (Aims 2 and 3). The BRIDGES Programme will help consolidate UCT’s place as an exceptional HIV
social science research institution addressing urgent gender and HIV priorities by intensively training 4 PhD
and 2 Postdoctoral Fellows (Aim 1), developing new semester PhD courses (2) and short courses (3) to
address existing training gaps (Aim 2), and hosting an Annual BRIDGES Symposium that will offer training,
networking and professional development in gender and HIV social science at UCT (Aim 3). The project cuts
across global, national and NIH “high priorities” for HIV research in its two Thematic Areas of focus: 1)
Reducing HIV incidence in adolescent girls and young women, and 2) Improving the performance of men in the
HIV cascade. Training activities will be delivered through collaboration with a diverse team of UCT, South
African, and international co-investigators drawn from Brown University (key collaborator), the Desmond Tutu
HIV Foundation (DTHF), South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), and Sonke Gender Justice. The
success of BRIDGES will be measured by our institutional capacity to sustain a productive, innovative,
responsive and impactful program of interdisciplinary HIV social science research aligned with the Trans-NIH
Plan for HIV-Related Research. Strengthening this aspect of the University’s research capacity is particularly
important in light of the University’s strong track record of HIV-related innovation in other aspects of public
health.