14 DAY TRIAL // The money will be used to sponsor a reported 16 consortia teams that will collaborate as integer parts of a research network for the Gates Foundation's project to accelerate the creation of an HIV vaccine. The research efforts of 165 investigators from 19 countries will benefit from the 16 grants totaling $287.000.000. In this context money is the key aspect to found a group research rather than leave it up to independent investigators. The Gates Foundation will sponsor eleven consortia to design HIV vaccine candidates and five laboratories to centralize and analyze and prioritize the research data.
"An HIV vaccine is our best long-term hope for controlling the global AIDS epidemic, but it has proven to be a tremendously difficult scientific challenge," said Dr. Jose Esparza, senior advisor on HIV vaccines for the Gates Foundation. "We have all been frustrated by the slow pace of progress in HIV vaccine development, yet breakthroughs are achievable if we aggressively pursue scientific leads and work together in new ways."
"These projects bring a new level of creativity and intensity to bear on major scientific challenges facing HIV vaccine development," said Dr. Nicholas Hellmann, acting director of the Gates Foundation's HIV, TB, and Reproductive Health program. "Some of the vaccine concepts that will be pursued have been talked about for years, but have never been adequately studied. If successful, they could lead to entirely new paradigms for HIV vaccine development."