PROJECT SUMMARY – HIV Pilot Extension Program The mission of the Deep South Center to Reduce Disparities in Chronic Diseases is to promote health equity and reduce the burden of cardiometabolic diseases across the Deep South. The Center represents a partnership between the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Tuskegee University, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center, along with regional non-academic partners to translate and sustain cardiometabolic research in real-world community and clinical settings. In addition to three R01-level projects implementing multi-level interventions to address cardiometabolic disease, the Center includes three Cores, the Administrative Core, the Community Engagement Core (CEC), and the Investigator Development Core (IDC). The Center is unified thematically through the application of a precision public health approach across the care continuum to achieve health equity and brings together a trans-disciplinary team of investigators from multiple academic institutions across the region along with non-academic partners with the expertise and experience necessary to achieve this long-term mission. With the HIV Pilot Extension Program, we will extend our Center’s focus on research in cardiometabolic disease to include health equity in HIV. Specifically, we propose the following three additions to the current IDC and CEC initiatives. First, we will fund an additional 3 pilots/year focused specifically on health equity in HIV, with the maximum budget for any one project supported by the IDC being $50,000. Second, we will add expertise in HIV health equity research to the Center’s Core Faculty. Drs. Latesha Elopre and Aadia Rana bring extensive experience in HIV outcomes and health equity research. As part of the Investigator Development Core, they will oversee the HIV Pilot Extension Program. They will also provide methodological and content expertise through the Translational Design subunit of the IDC. Third, by leveraging existing partnerships within the UAB Center for Aids Research and through Drs. Elopre and Rana’s programs of research, we will add non-academic partners to our existing community coalition. By adding a focus on HIV health equity research, particularly as it applies to the intersection between HIV and cardiometabolic conditions, this revision will increase the breadth of content and methodologic expertise and amplify the overall impact of the Deep South Center to Reduce Disparities in Chronic Diseases on health equity in the region. .