Vision & Mission

Our Vision: To reduce HIV transmission amongst people who are vulnerable and/or marginalized and improve the quality of life of those living with HIV by addressing the root causes of vulnerability, and acting on the social determinants of health.

Our Mission: To advance HIV prevention efforts through novel approaches to social science research, capacity building and knowledge transfer and exchange.

Strategic Objectives

The work of the SRC focuses on (1) fostering links and relationships, mobilizing and building human resource capacity to critically evaluate and undertake prevention work, (2) conducting leading edge research to inform prevention and intervention efforts, and evaluate prevention efforts, and (3) undertaking knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) to ensure more effective research and prevention/intervention programs, and healthier policies are in place in Canada.

Our five (5) strategic objectives include:

1. To enable a group of researchers, front line workers and policy officials from different regions, institutions, and diverse disciplines to collaborate on HIV prevention to increase productivity/impact and to engage in knowledge transfer and exchange with broader prevention and academic communities.
2. To facilitate critical analysis of current research knowledge and methods, and to generate new tools and theories for HIV social science research and prevention.
3. To develop a strategic program of collaborative health and social science research relevant to current national and regional issues and emerging priorities and needs in HIV prevention.
4. To build Canadian research capacity through training programs, internships, practicums, exchanges and mentoring opportunities for trainees, students and existing researchers; and through the engagement of HIV experts from outside and within Canada, and researchers who possess relevant expertise outside the HIV field.
5. To develop new KTE mechanisms and foster meaningful and collaborative KTE relationships between researchers and key policy, practice and community organizations and coalitions.

Our Response

Our working model is a public health approach, which integrates multi-level analyses of vulnerability and risk, ensuring knowledge transfer and exchange across (KTE) research, program and policy domains.  We are committed to strong multi-sectoral, interdisciplinary collaborations, capacity building and KTE activities with policy, researchers and community partners.  Guided by these commitments, we are focusing our efforts to:

• Develop multi-site, theoretically and methodologically novel approaches to HIV prevention and intervention research through our series of Research Projects
• Support promising trainees and students through our Capacity Building efforts
• Attract new researchers to the field through research initiatives, public events, publications and ongoing dialogue
• Facilitate innovative yet accessible e-solutions to support collaborations that advance HIV prevention knowledge and action through novel KTE activities and projects.