Together with the Rockefeller Foundation, DDCF supported a small grants program for AIDS Care Research in Africa (ACRiA) to fund young African investigators. The primary goal of the program was to help build local research capacity so that Africans can determine how to best care for and treat their AIDS patients. The scope of the research supported by ACRiA was broad and includes work on malaria and tuberculosis as they affect AIDS patients.
ACRiA, which is based at the Joint Clinical Research Centre in Kampala, Uganda, is directed by Dr. Peter Mugyenyi from the Joint Clinical Research Centre and Dr. Elly Katibira from Makerere Medical School in Kampala. Dr. Brooks Jackson from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine serves as a special advisor to the program.
ACRiA has held four open competitions in which research proposals were solicited from junior African investigators working on AIDS care and treatment throughout Africa. Those proposals were reviewed by an expert panel of primarily African AIDS researchers. For many applicants, the ACRiA proposal is the first research proposal they have written.
ACRiA has committed more than $500,000 to provide up to two years of funds (ranging from $10,000 to $80,000) for 16 projects led by investigators working in nine African nations.
The ACRiA review panel (left to right): Zamuka Grace (ACRiA coordinator), Fred Mahlu, Peter Mugyenyi, Elly Katabira, Papa Salif Sow, J. Brooks Jackson, and Job Bwayo