The Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery

The Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD) is an international network of scientists and experts dedicated to designing a variety of novel HIV vaccine candidates and advancing the most promising candidates to clinical trials.

The CAVD operates on the principle that accelerating progress toward an AIDS vaccine requires the creativity of individual investigators supported by a collaborative approach that emphasizes the sharing of scientific information and the standardization of laboratory techniques and data analysis.

A safe and effective preventative vaccine is the best way to halt the spread of HIV, which newly infects approximately 2.3 million people worldwide each year. Although existing treatment and prevention programs are working, they often don’t reach the poorest and most disenfranchised individuals.

The CAVD was launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in July 2006 and has funded a total of 23 three to five year grants with $355 million. Today 22 grants support more than 500 investigators across 101 institutions in 19 countries. Three institutions funded through the foundation's Grand Challenges in Global Health (GCGH) program are also collaborating within the framework of the CAVD.

CAVD Goals

To accelerate HIV vaccine research and development by:

• Conducting collaborative research
• Designing novel candidate vaccines
• Improving and standardizing laboratory practices, data analysis, and preserving and sharing materials
• Introducing promising candidate vaccines to preclinical and clinical trials

Read more about the CAVD