• Employment Ops.
• People at CIRA
• Affiliated Projects
• Funding Ops (Excel)
• Recorded Talks

Churches are closing in predominantly Black communities – why public health officials should be concerned

Yusuf Ransome, assistant professor at Yale School of Public Health, recently co-authored an essay stating that the current COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the important role that churches have played as trusted authorities in Black and Latino communities in disseminating information and in serving as points of access for COVID-19 testing and vaccine rollouts.

"The COVID-19 pandemic made clear that existing traditional health care delivery sites are insufficient to meet the needs of large populations, expeditiously. To become an equitable nation, and to protect all members of the population, we need public policy that prioritizes collaborations with cultural institutions that are salient to people of color."

More from The Brookings Institution

Publication Alert: Longitudinal Improvements in Viral Suppression for Persons with New HIV Diagnosis Receiving Care in the Ryan White Program: A 10-year experience in New Haven, CT (2009-2018)

A recent paper highlighting the success of the Ryan White (RW) program in New Haven to improve HIV control. Merceditas Villanueva, associate professor at Yale School of Medicine, is lead author.
More from Open Forum Infectious Diseases

Uganda Russia Boston Alcohol Network for Alcohol Research Collaboration on HIV/AIDS (URBAN ARCH) Annual Meeting
Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2022, 8:30 am–3:00 pm
Further Details

Yale School of Medicine Addiction Medicine Rounds: Reducing Inequalities in HIV Incidence - Is there a case for providing PrEP in on-premises alcohol outlets?
Date: Thursday, May 12, 2022, 2:00 pm–3:00 pm
Presenter: Dr. Yusuf Ransome, Yale School of Public Health
Further Details

YSM Program for Humanities in Medicine presents: Queer Family Making in Medical Spaces: An Interdisciplinary Discussion
Date: Thursday, May 12, 2022, 5:00 pm–6:30 pm
Further Details

2022 Providence/Boston CFAR Annual Research Forum
Date: Friday, May 13, 2022, 8:15 am-3:30 pm
Further Details

Documenting adaptations before, during, and after the implementation of evidence-based programs
Date: Friday, May 13, 2022, 3:00 pm
Further Details

Integrative Management of Chronic Pain and Opioid Use Disorder for Whole Recovery-Yale Organizations United (IMPOWR-YOU) Research Center: Early Stage Investigator Introductory Meeting
Date: Monday, May 16, 2020, 12:00 pm-1:00 pm
Further Details

Robust Inference for Stepped Wedge Designs
Date: Tuesday, May 17, 2022, 3:00 pm-4:00 pm
Further Details

CIRA Qualitative Research Discussion Group (QRDG): "Emergence of a new normal: How older adults with HIV and their clinicians cope during the war in Ukraine"
Date: Friday, May 20, 2022, 12:00 pm-1:30 pm
Presenter: Julia Rozanova, Yale School of Medicine
Contact: Lauretta Grau (lauretta.grau@yale.edu)
Further Details

American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting
In-Person Meeting: May 21-25, 2022 (New Orleans, LA)
Online Meeting: June 7-10, 2022
Further Details

CIRA Talk: "Developing a Chatbot to Promote HIV Testing and Prevention"
Date: Thursday, June 2, 9:00 am-10:00 am
Speakers: Zhao Ni, PhD, Yale School of Nursing and Jeffrey Wickersham, PhD, Yale School of Medicine
Further Details

15th NIH Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Sciences Honors
Date: Friday, June 3, 1:00 pm-4:30 pm
Further Details

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Workshop: "Disseminating Research Findings to Drive Action"
Date: Tuesday, June 7, 2022, 10:00 am-4:00 pm
Further Details

CIRA Talk: "Reducing HIV Transmission Among People who Use Drugs: Bridge Clinic Implementation of Low-Barrier PrEP and MOUD"
Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2022, 1:00 pm-2:00 pm
Speaker: Jessica Taylor, MD, Boston University School of Medicine & Boston Medical Center
Further Details

Call for Applications for International Scholars: INVEST Drug Abuse Research Fellowship
Application Due Date: July 1, 2022
Further Details

Download an Excel spreadsheet compilation of active funding opportunities. Opportunities previously not listed are below.

Increasing Uptake of Long-Acting Injectable Antiretrovirals Among People with HIV
Application Due Date: June 21, 2022
Further Details

Coordinating Center for the HIV/AIDS and Substance Use Cohorts Program (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
AIDS Application Due Date(s): August 10, 2022
Further Details

PCORI Funding Announcements (PFAs)
Letters of Intent Due Date: June 1, 2022
Application Due Date: August 31, 2022 (by invitation only)
Further Details

(NOSI): Towards Developing a Cure for HBV in HIV/HBV Co-Infection
First Available Due Date: September 5, 2022
Further Details

(NOSI): Sustained Release of Antivirals for Treatment or Prevention of HIV or Treatment of Latent TB/HBV (SRATP)
First Available Due Date: September 7, 2022
Further Details

NOSI: Administrative Supplements for Research of Emerging and Existing Issues of COVID-19 Related to the Health and Well-Being of Women, Children and Individuals with Physical and/or Intellectual Disabilities
First Available Due Date: April 29, 2022
Expiration Date: June 6, 2024
Further Details

Study protocol of a randomized controlled trial comparing two linkage models for HIV prevention and treatment in justice-involved persons
Sandra A Springer, Ank E Nijhawan, Kevin Knight, Irene Kuo, Angela Di Paola, Esther Schlossberg, Cynthia A Frank, Mark Sanchez, Jennifer Pankow, Randi P Proffitt, Wayne Lehman, Zoe Pulitzer, Kelly Thompson, Sandra Violette, Kathleen K Harding, ACTION Cooperative Group
BMC Infectious Diseases. 2022. Apr 15;22(1):380. doi: 10.1186/s12879-022-07354-x.

Racial disparity in ART adherence is closed in states with high social trust: Results from the Medical Monitoring Project (MMP), 2015
Yusuf Ransome, Trace Kershaw, Ichiro Kawachi, Denis Nash, Kenneth H Mayer
Journal of Community Psychology. 2022. Apr 23. doi: 10.1002/jcop.22862. Online ahead of print.

Optimizing PrEP Continuance: A Secondary Analysis Examining Perceived Autonomy Support and Care Coordination Quality among Black MSM in HPTN 073
S Raquel Ramos, Geetha Beauchamp, Darrell P Wheeler, Leo Wilton, Darren L Whitfield, Donte T Boyd, Lisa Hightow-Weidman, Sheldon D Fields, LaRon E Nelson, On Behalf Of The Hptn Team
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022. Apr 8;19(8):4489. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19084489.

PrEP Access in the United States: The Role of Telehealth
Further Details

NOTE: All times are expressed in Eastern Time unless otherwise noted. All dates refer to 2022 unless otherwise noted.

Spotlight on CIRA

CIRA's Qualitative Research Discussion Group (QRDG)

Fri, May 20, Noon-1:30 pm
Julia Rozanova, Yale School of Medicine - "Emergence of a new normal: How older adults with HIV and their clinicians cope during the war in Ukraine"

CIRA Talk: "Developing a Chatbot to Promote HIV Testing and Prevention"

Thu, June 2, 9:00 am-10:00 am

CIRA Talk: "Reducing HIV Transmission Among People who Use Drugs: Bridge Clinic Implementation of Low-Barrier PrEP and MOUD"

Wed, June 15, 2022, 1:00 pm-2:00 pm

Meeting Challenges & Taking Action: Highlights of CIRA Activities and Accomplishments

Collaborators past, present and future, we invite you to peruse this concise summary of "CIRA Highlights" from the past year, and welcome any comments/suggestions you may have for future representation of your engagement with CIRA.

Download a PDF

CIRA Peer Review Program

CIRA's Peer Review Program is designed to enhance the quality of grant proposals, manuscripts, and research presentations written by CIRA affiliates by sharing them with a multidisciplinary group of colleagues for their critique and feedback. The spirit of our program is one of collegiality and respect; it is constructive rather than evaluative in nature. We encourage peer review at any stage of development, from a 2-3 page concept sheet to a penultimate draft.

Please submit your request for Peer Review 4 weeks prior to requested review date. Review materials are due:

• Specific Aims: 5 days in advance of the review date
• Grant Sections (i.e. approach, significance etc): 7 days in advance of the review date
• Full Grant proposal: 14 days in advance of the review date
• Sections of a paper (i.e. methods, tables, discussion etc): 7 days in advance of the review date
• Full Manuscript: 10 days in advance of the review date
• Concept paper: 5 days in advance of the review date
• Conference Presentation: nothing due in advance
• Conference Poster: 5 days in advance of the review date

Sessions are held at CIRA's Offices (135 College Street, Suite 200, New Haven CT) on Zoom, or via email and last around one hour. Reviews are typically led by a primary reviewer; whose role is to provide oral and written feedback on each proposal. This is followed by the other reviewers’ feedback and then we hold a group discussion.

The peer review process has multiple benefits: Researchers gain from practical advice on products. Also, they offer a rare opportunity for a cross-section of the entire CIRA community – scientists, staff, community representatives and post-doctoral fellows – to keep abreast of and discuss the very latest research, to forge additional, cross-disciplinary collaborations, and to expand and build on professional networks.

To request a Peer Review, please click here. For further information or questions, please contact Katie Doucet (katie.doucet@yale.edu).

COVID-19 and HIV Resources

CIRA has launched a webpage that provides a wide range of resources surrounding COVID-19 and HIV. The webpage will be updated regularly as new information and materials become available. The resources include COVID-19-related funding opportunities, call for papers, research tools and guidance, and many more. Contact Dini Harsono (dini.harsono@yale.edu) for questions or comments about the web page.

Research Snapshot Series

CIRA's Research Snapshot series features one page summaries of completed, peer reviewed and published studies conducted by our affiliated scientists. The summaries describe the reason for the study, the key findings, and implications for practice and policy, presented in plain language. Each of the briefs also include a link to a published article in a peer reviewed journal that derives from the featured study.

If you are a CIRA Affiliate and interested in submitting a brief for publication or just want to discuss the process, contact Pete Donohue, pete.donohue@yale.edu.

Did you know our eBulletin is Archived?

For your convenience, we have archived all issues of CIRA's eBulletin. No need to dig through your emails to find an old issue.
View the Archive