# Wits-UNC Partnership: Expanding Capacity in HIV Implementation Science in South Africa

> **NIH NIH D43** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2021 · $287,377

## Abstract

Contact PD/PI: Pettifor, Audrey
PrPorjoejcetcSt uSmummmarayry
South Africa continues to be at the center of the HIV epidemic with the most persons living with HIV globally.
While access to HIV prevention and antiretroviral therapy (ART) has expanded in recent years, there are still
significant gaps in the proportion of people accessing prevention and care programs. To successfully reach the
UNAIDS goal of epidemic control, access and adherence to effective prevention and treatment programs must
be significantly expanded. Implementation science can help in understanding how to improve access to, uptake
of and quality of programs needed to curtail the epidemic. By increasing the number of implementation science
experts and organizations, our proposal can effect change. In the current D43 award (2014-2019), the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) and the School of Public Health (SPH) at the University of the
Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa successfully developed and implemented the first Masters and Doctoral
program in Implementation Science (IS) in South Africa and the Africa region and built research capacity among
South African faculty, students and government. Wits and UNC faculty worked closely together to develop new
courses in IS, set up the degree program and taught 11 courses together. With this strong academic foundation
in place, in this renewal, we seek to strengthen the degree program developed, for Wits to take full ownership of
the program and to expand our training and mentoring model by partnering with three leading South African HIV
research organizations affiliated with Wits (Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (RHI), Anova Health
Institute, and Aurum Institute) to build a critical mass of IS expertise based on identified need within their
organizations. In this project we aim: 1) To establish Wits SPH as a center of excellence in implementation
science training and to support Wits SPH to independently lead the IS degree program into the future.
2) To support Wits faculty, and those affiliated with Wits at our 3 HIV research partners and UCT, in
career development and progression to becoming independent researchers with expertise in both IS and
HIV. 3) To develop expertise in implementation science among 3 leading South African HIV research
organizations: Wits RHI, Anova and Aurum. This renewal will solidify a successful program in IS that Wits
and UNC jointly implemented in the current D43. We will leverage our experience and strong collaborative history
between UNC and Wits to establish Wits as a leader in IS training and to expand the groundwork laid in our
current D43 by joining forces with leading HIV Research Institutions—Wits RHI, Anova and Aurum. In this
renewal we aim to expand the cadre of IS researchers who can conduct rigorous and innovative IS research to
improve the uptake and delivery of prevention and care programs, ultimately preventing new HIV infections and
deaths.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10145833
- **Project number:** 5D43TW009774-08
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Audrey Pettifor
- **Activity code:** D43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $287,377
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2014-06-01 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10145833

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10145833, Wits-UNC Partnership: Expanding Capacity in HIV Implementation Science in South Africa (5D43TW009774-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10145833. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*