February 11, 2008

• A. CIRA SPONSORED AIDS SEMINARS
• B. CIRA MEETINGS/ANNOUNCEMENTS
• C. OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

A. CIRA SPONSORED AIDS SEMINARS

1. THIS WEEK! YACS @ CIRA Seminar Series
   
   Date/Time: 02/14/08, 12:00 P.M. – 1:30 P.M.
   Title: "Confronting XDR TB in rural South Africa"
   Speaker(s): Gerald H. Friedland, M.D., Director, AIDS Program-Yale New-Haven Hospital and Yale University
   Sponsor(s): Co-sponsored by CIRA and the Institution for Social and Policy Studies.
   Location: CIRA, Ste # 200, 135 College Street, New Haven, CT
   Contact: Please RSVP to Betsy Williams (betsy.williams@yale.edu). For more information or directions, please call 764-4333, or visit the YACS @ CIRA Web site: http://cira.med.yale.edu/events/yacs.html.
2. THIS WEEK! Research in Progress Seminar Series
   
   Date/Time: 02/15/08, 2:00 P.M. – 3:30 P.M.
   Title: "Life Style, Psychosocial Situation and Medical Services Seeking Behaviors Among HIV Sero-Positive Men Who Have Sex With Men: a Cross-Sectional Study in 2 Cities in China"
   Speaker(s): Guodong Mi, M.D.,M.P.H, International Trainee
   Sponsor(s): Office of International Training (OIT), CIRA
   Location: CIRA, Ste. 200, Rm. 202, 135 College Street, New Haven, CT
   
3. NEW! YACS @ CIRA Seminar Series
   
   Date/Time: 02/28/08, 12:00 P.M. – 1:30 P.M. (Brown bag lunch. Cookies and beverages provided.)
   Title: "TBA"
   Speaker(s): Patricia Case, Senior Research Scientist, Fenway Community Health
   Sponsor(s): Co-sponsored by CIRA, the Institution for Social and Policy Studies and the Yale School of Public Health's Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases.
   Location: LEPH Room 608, 60 College Street, New Haven, CT
   Contact: Please RSVP to Betsy Williams (betsy.williams@yale.edu). For more information or directions, please call 764-4333, or visit the YACS @ CIRA Web site: http://cira.med.yale.edu/events/yacs.html.

B. CIRA MEETINGS/ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. THIS WEEK! Community Research (CR) Core Meeting
   Date/Time: 02/13/08, 9:00 A.M. - 10:30 A.M.
   Location: CIRA, Ste. 200, Rm. 202, 135 College Street, New Haven, CT
2. Peer Review
   Date/Time: 02/18/08, 2:00 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.
   Location: CIRA, Ste. 200, Rm. 223, 135 College Street, New Haven, CT
   NOTE: CIRA peer review provides an opportunity to enhance the quality of grant proposals and manuscripts written by CIRA scientists by sharing them with a multidisciplinary group of colleagues. The spirit of CIRA peer review is one of collegiality and respect; peer review is constructive rather than evaluative. Investigators use the feedback they receive as they see fit. We encourage you to have your proposal reviewed early in its development. If you would like to submit a grant proposal or manuscript for peer review, please contact Jon Atherton (jon.atherton@yale.edu; 764-4351).
3. NEW! Law, Policy and Ethics (LPE) Core Meeting
   Date/Time: 02/25/08, 10:30 A.M. - 11:30 A.M.
   Location: CIRA, Ste. 200, 135 College Street, New Haven, CT

C. OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. NEW! THIS WEEK! The Hartford HIV Forum - "Update From 15th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI)"
   
   Date/Time: 02/12/08, 12:00 P.M. – 1:30 P.M. (lunch provided, you must RSVP)
   Speakers: Kevin Dieckhaus, M.D., HIV Program Coordinator and Chief of Infectious Diseases at the University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC).
   The presentation will be of interest to clinicians, researchers, case managers, people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as interested members of the public. Dieckhaus would like attendees to come away from the talk with "a general overview of the 'newest and latest' as seen from the perspective of an HIV clinician." He concludes, "I generally try to synthesize themes of the conference, distill a multitude of scientific concepts/presentations into practical issues for clinicians, define trends in therapy, and discuss ongoing investigations and issues the field of HIV care."
   Sponsor: The Institute for Community Research (ICR) and The CT AIDS Education & Training Center (CAETC)
   Location: Institute for Community Research, 2 Hartford Square West, Suite 100, 146 Wyllys St., Hartford, CT 06106. Free parking on Wyllys St.
   Contact: Please RSVP to: (860) 278-2044. For additional information, visit their Web site at: www.incommunityresearch.org.
2. CALL FOR PAPERS! "New Weapons Needed to Fight HIV"
   
   Deadline: March 3, 2008
   In August 2008, JAMA will publish a theme issue devoted to HIV/AIDS to coincide with the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. As with the last HIV/AIDS theme issue in 2006, JAMA welcomes submission of evidence-based papers on HIV prevention and treatment for consideration. Papers received by March 3, 2008, will have the best chance for consideration for the 2008 HIV/AIDS theme issue.
3. NIH Fiscal Policy for Grant Awards - FY 2008 (NOT-OD-08-036)
   
   Sponsor: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
   This Notice provides guidance about the NIH Fiscal Operations Plan for FY2008 and it implements the FY 2008 Congressional action that provided NIH with $29.2 billions or 1 percent more than FY 2007 funding. The NIH will continue to manage its portfolio of investments in biomedical research as described in the FY 2007 Fiscal Policy Notice (see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07-030.html and http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not-od-07-049.html. This includes continuing to address the need for a highly productive pool of researchers by providing support for new investigators and sustaining established investigators, who have little or no additional research support. For more information please go to: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-036.html
4. Announcing the FY 2008 NIH Director's Bridge Awards (NOT-OD-08-037)
   
   Sponsor: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
   As indicated in previous announcements regarding the financial operating policy for FY 2008 (see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-036.html and http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/financial/index.htm). the NIH is taking specific steps to continue the support available to investigators whose R01 applications receive review scores near the Institute or Center nominal payline and who have limited additional support. This approach was reinforced with the enactment of P.L. 110-161: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008. This announcement updates and expands the NIH Director's Bridge Award (NDBA), which was initiated in FY 2007. The NDBA provides continued but limited bridge funding for meritorious investigators who just miss the funding cutoff and have minimal support from other sources. The continued funding will permit the Principal Investigator additional time to strengthen a resubmission application. An NDBA recipient will receive R56 awards for a single year. For more information please go to: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-037.html
5. Yale University's "14th Annual Rebellious Lawyering Conference"
   
   Date: February 22 – 24, 2008
   The Rebellious Lawyering Conference is an annual, student-run conference that brings together practitioners, law students, and community activists / advocates from around the country to discuss innovative, progressive approaches to law and social change. For more information and to register, please see: http://islandia.law.yale.edu/reblaw/.