BALTIMORE, MD – Dr. Jane Bertrand, director, Center for Communication Programs (CCP) and Dr. Thomas Quinn, director, Center for Global Health announced Johns Hopkins University won a five-year award for Project SEARCH – Supporting Evaluation and Research to Combat HIV/AIDS from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The winning proposal, submitted by CCP and the Center for Global Health, includes names and experiences of over 75 staff from the schools of Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, and JHPIEGO and allows the team to be one of five awardees to bid on future task orders. USAID has projected the task orders could potentially reach $200 million.

Bertrand will serve as Project Director on the award and CCP will manage it while working in close collaboration with the Center for Global Health. The team’s external partners are Marco International, Abt Associates, and Social Sectors Development Strategies, Inc.

“This award shows the power of collaboration at Hopkins. By drawing from our many strengths and deep experience in global HIV/AIDS work, we offered a capability that is extraordinary,” said Bertrand.

“Project SEARCH provides a unique and important opportunity for Hopkins and its partners to contribute to programs in HIV prevention and care,” says Quinn. “The topics of potential evaluative studies are crucial in determining appropriate models of care and prevention so program funds are used to best advantage. These topics seem to be matched extraordinarily well with our capabilities. I am also particularly pleased that there is an interest in translating structured evaluations and research to policy as this coincides with the goals of the Center.”

The pre-approval mechanism for future task orders, called an Indefinite Quality Contract (IQC), provides a more efficient response to the short and long-term needs of USAID missions overseas by establishing a competitive bidding process open only to the Project SEARCH awardees.

The goal of Project SEARCH is to carry out research and evaluation to improve coverage, quality and effectiveness of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment programs worldwide. In addition, it will serve to strengthen local capacity in HIV/AIDS research and public health assessments through training and in-country collaborations.

Project SEARCH may be used for:

• Developing and evaluating models of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment programs;
• Conducting public health evaluations to investigate effectiveness of interventions and translating results into public health guidelines;
• Identifying and disseminating best practices to improve program efficiency and effectiveness;
• Developing national and international standards and indicators for the purpose of program monitoring and evaluation;
• Conducting analyses of clinical, community-level, and population-based epidemiologic, demographic and surveillance data;
• Testing program implementation models including research on practical applications of new technologies and intervention models in resource poor settings;
• Carrying out feasibility studies, community preparedness studies and policy analyses; and,
• Developing local capacity in applied research and ethical procedures by increasing technical skills of developing country investigators and providing technical assistance to in-country institutions.

The other four groups receiving this award are: Boston University, Family Health International, the Futures Group (with University of Washington), and the Population Council.