Launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in July 2006, the CAVD was created to establish a collaborative international network of researchers focussed on developing an HIV vaccine.

The CAVD describes itself as a ‘€œcollaborative environment that breeds scientific innovation by combining the independent pursuits and complementary approaches of research groups through a common targeted research agenda’€.

This agenda involves people working together, information shared quickly, efficient testing and comparing of ideas, coordination amongst collaborators, effective use of financial resources, added-value and a shift towards collective, evidence-based decision making.

The recently published report. 2006-2008 in Review, summarises the progress of the initiative so far. Whilst at the outset in July 2006 there were 16 institutions receiving funding, CAVD currently comprises 19 grantees, receiving in excess of $327 million in grants over a 5-year period, collaborating with several hundred researchers, based in 95 institutions across 21 countries.

In February 2005 the Gates Foundation began the process of requesting research proposals, to be based around the Scientific Strategic Plan of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, which was published in PLoS-Medicine in the same month.

Three of the Enterprise Plan’€™s 6 priorities were addressed in the CAVD’€™s work.

Firstly, the soliciting of projects focussing on the ‘€˜rational design of immunogens capable of inducing broadly reactive neutralizing antibodies’€™.

Secondly, projects focussing on the ‘€˜rational design of immunogens capable of inducing persistent high levels of T-cell immunity’€™.

Thirdly, the creation of ‘€˜vaccine immune monitoring consortia’€™, to form a global infrastructure permitting wide-spread access to technology and laboratories, and to facilitate data comparisons in clinical and pre-clinical trials across the world.

This diversification of approach has resulted from analysis of the progress of the move to find an HIV vaccine, which has occurred in three key phases.

Initially, research focussed on the idea that antibodies alone would be able to confer HIV immunity.

The second phase stemmed from the concept that cellular mediated immunity might eradicate HIV.

The third and current phase is based on the recognition that more basic research is required, and that any future success in combating HIV relies on a global collaborative effort built upon the lessons learned from past failures.

In light of this, CAVD’€™s research portfolio is diversified across both antibody based and cellular immune approaches, with ideas for possible vaccines ranging from ‘€˜safer’€™ to ‘€˜riskier’€™. The hope is that by exploring a wide range of possible vaccine approaches, one will eventually prove successful.

Whilst CAVD is  quick to acknowledge that not every grant-funded project will succeed in the identification of a way forward to an HIV vaccine, the report strongly advocates the practical benefits of learning from failures along the way.

The report describes the strength of the CAVD as being that it ‘€œbrings scientists together to make the global vaccine search more effective’€. It also states that ‘€œThis ‘€˜Big Science’€™ collaborative approach is a great experiment and requires a change in the culture of scientists’€™.

Such a ‘€œchange’€ refers to the need for scientists to work together if there is any hope for future success. Although the CAVD describes its grantees as ‘€œmany of the world’€™s most prominent researchers in HIV vaccine science’€, it says that the success of its ‘€˜first-class’€™ team depends strongly on how well the players involved work as a team.

The initiative’€™s ultimate goal is the development of a vaccine that prevents HIV infection or disease. Whilst anything less than that could be described as ‘€˜progress’€™, it would not constitute a success.

The report concludes with a quotation from its primary patron, Bill Gates:

‘€œHumanity’€™s greatest advances are not in its discoveries, but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity.’€

Read the full report here:

http://www.cavd.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/CAVD%20Report_%202006-2008%20In%20Review.pdf