The AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition has announced a five-year, $14 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create a new international HIV Prevention Advocacy Network.

The network, announced during the recent AIDS Vaccine 2007 Conference, will work with civil society, policy makers, and research partners around the world to advance ethical research and development of new HIV-prevention interventions, ensure that communities are informed about and involved in prevention research, and make certain that the benefits of research are shared globally. The new grant also broadens AVAC's advocacy focus beyond AIDS vaccines, to include other new HIV prevention interventions such as microbicides and oral prevention drugs.

The new network will work to develop international advocacy partnerships that support both the needs of communities involved in research and a global advocacy movement for HIV prevention research. It will also translate complex scientific ideas to communities and translate community needs and perceptions to the scientific community; work to hold both research agencies and advocates accountable for accelerating ethical prevention research and development; help ensure that communities, policy makers, and civil society have realistic expectations about HIV prevention research and specific clinical trials; and work closely with other groups conducting HIV prevention research advocacy, including microbicide advocacy groups.

"We are entering a new era in HIV prevention research, with more products being tested in efficacy trials than ever before," said AVAC executive director Mitchell Warren. "A coordinated global effort is urgently needed to support the wide range of prevention research, to ensure that the voices of civil society and communities are heard, and to prepare for results from these trials."