CHRP Annual Program Update July 2025-2026

CHRP helps us to achieve the objectives of our ENDING THE EPIDEMICS STRATEGIC PLAN by… addressing research questions that help us create higher- impact interventions for HIV prevention, treatment, and policy through a social determinants of health lens… and training the next generation of the public health workforce

-DR. MARISA RAMOS OFFICE OF AIDS CHIEF CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH

CHRP has demonstrated time and time again its focus on investing in rigorous and groundbreaking research, on challenging researchers to work more equally with communities and government, and on linking HIV research with structural issues such as poverty, housing, and mistrust. Such investment in what are often high risk but potentially high return projects is a hallmark of CHRP

-PI, CLINICAL, SOCIAL, BEHAVIORAL, AND IMPLEMENTATION SCIENCE INVESTIGATION

Our CHRP-funded work brought PrEP into the HIV and sexual health conversation in Oakland and the East Bay and brought Oakland into the larger California conversation about HIV prevention strategies.

-PI, CLINICAL, SOCIAL, BEHAVIORAL, AND IMPLEMENTATION SCIENCE INVESTIGATION

My first substantial grant as an early stage investigator was from CHRP. That first grant focused on how people’s relationships with other people affected how they used HIV health care. While we now take for granted that relationships with family, friends, and community are critically important to vulnerable people’s health, back in the early 1990s, this was still a relatively new idea.

-PI, CLINICAL, SOCIAL, BEHAVIORAL, AND IMPLEMENTATION SCIENCE INVESTIGATION

With the CHRP funding we developed the HIV Medical Care Coordination program, that we later expanded to 31 HIV clinics in LA County. It was shown to be effective at improving viral load and retention in care for at risk patients, and continues to be sustained today. LA County invests over $9 million annually for this program.

-PI, CLINICAL, SOCIAL, BEHAVIORAL, AND IMPLEMENTATION SCIENCE INVESTIGATION

CHRP provided crucial early support for our HIV cure research when NIH was not coming through–which led over the course of ten years to eventual federal funding for a thriving research group, two clinical trials, and formation of a California-based biotechnology company.

-PI, BASIC BIOMEDICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCES

Our CHRP-funded work in initiating PrEP into San Diego was instrumental in seeding PrEP uptake in the community and contributed to declining HIV rates.

-PI, CLINICAL, SOCIAL, BEHAVIORAL, AND IMPLEMENTATION SCIENCE INVESTIGATION

The Policy research [award] helped us expand the health insurance premium payment program, expand access to PrEP, and led to the creation of the Ending the Epidemics Coalition… leading to more coordination and collaboration and helping to break down silos [across sectors].

-CO-PI, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA POLICY RESEARCH CENTER