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To increase the number of Black HIV/AIDS researchers, a research team from the UCLA Center for Culture, Trauma and Mental Health Disparities and the UCLA AIDS Institute recently released a series of recommendations aimed at reversing the trend and recruiting more Blacks into the field. The recommendations, directed at universities, government and private research funders, were published in a supplement to the April issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
“We need African-American experts who are at the forefront of HIV/AIDS prevention,” said Dr. Gail Wyatt, lead author and director of the UCLA AIDS Institute, in a written statement. “HIV/AIDS research conducted by highly trained African-Americans should be the norm and not the exception.”
Funding research that encourages partnerships with historically Black and minority-serving institutions and organizations, such as the National Medical Association, will allow more clinically trained professionals of color to participate in HIV/AIDS research, Wyatt and her team say.
Loan repayment programs for graduate education programs for those who pursue careers in HIV research and mandatory training in cultural competence for federal grant reviewers could also increase the number of Black researchers pursuing HIV/AIDS as a field of study.
In 1999, underrepresented minorities composed almost 25 percent of the U.S. population, but as a research constituency they submitted only 5.2 percent of grant applications to The National Institute of Mental Health. And, of all of the applications that received funding, grants to Blacks accounted for only 3.9 percent, the report outlines.
