Originally launched in 2006, the BHIVA Research Award is open, through competitive application, to all BHIVA members for research projects that impact on the improvement of clinical care and management of people living with HIV in the UK. Up to £30,000 per annum is available, to be distributed amongst the successful applicants according to the quality of the submitted proposals, with a maximum of £10,000 award per application. The awards panel is chaired by an independent chair and the call for applications is usually announced in June and successful applicants notified in October.
Applications for grants or funding for research or other projects made directly to the Association are reviewed by the BHIVA Executive Committee at its meetings and considered based on merit and their relevance to the objectives of BHIVA.
2011 winners
BHIVA received 22 good quality applications from large and small centres in 2011, requesting a total of £183,393. BHIVA is proud to announce the following 7 successful applicants being awarded £52,179.
'Feasibility and acceptability of repeat home-based HIV saliva testing using self sampling oral swabs in men who have sex with men', Dr S Fidler, Imperial College London
'Do HIV-infected HBV vaccine serological non-responders demonstrate T-cell responsiveness to HBV antigen?' Dr T Lavender, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals
'Combined CSF biomarkers of HIV-associated neurocognitive impairment (HAND)', Dr S Nightingale, University of Liverpool
'Renal tubular dysfunction as risk factor for bone loss in HIV positive patients', Dr F Post, King's College Hospital and King's College London
'Antiretroviral use in pregnancy and pre-term delivery: the role of immune activation', Dr C Short, Imperial College London
'Evaluation of mixed base threshold settings of a semi-automated sequence editing programme and standardised editing algorithms for the accuracy in detecting the K103N resistance mutation by using allele specific PCR as gold standard', Dr E Smit, Health Protection Agency, Birmingham
'Relapse after treatment for acute HCV infection in HIV-positive men; viral recrudescence or reinfection?' Dr E Thomson, University of Glasgow
The BHIVA Research Awards 2011 were part-sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences.
2010 winners
BHIVA received 22 good quality applications from large and small centres in 2010, requesting a total of £158,782. BHIVA is proud to announce the following 8 successful applicants being awarded £58,411 (one award was subsequently withdrawn and funds have been allocated to the 2011 awards round).
'Estimating the prevalence of occult hepatitis B infection in HIV-infected Zimbabweans in the UK: a pilot study', Dr David Chadwick, James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough
'HIV-1 residual viraemia during long-term suppressive HAART: does it influence the burden of the latent reservoir?' Dr Tim Conibear, Royal Free Hospital NHS Trust, London
'Gender-based violence in HIV positive women attending an inner city clinic: Prevalence and risk fact', Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan, Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London
'Evaluation of circulating gut-homing T cells as a marker of HIV-1 progression and immune reconstitution', Dr Lucy Dorrell, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust
'Activin A: a key regulator of immune activation during HIV-1 infection?' Dr Martin Goodier, Imperial College School of Medicine at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London
'Characterisation of mucosally transmitted HIV–1 founder viruses', Dr Ravindra Gupta, University College London
'Low Level viraemia on HAART', Dr Ian Harrison, Royal Free Hospital NHS Trust, London
'A Cardiovascular Risk Algorithm for Young Adults Infected with HIV', Dr Margaret Rhoads, Imperial College School of Medicine, London
The BHIVA Research Awards 2010 were part-sponsored by Abbott Laboratories and Gilead Sciences.
2009 winners
'Characterisation of Neurocognitive Function in Perinatally Acquired HIV Positive Young People', Dr Jane Ashby, St Mary’s Hospital, London
'The effects of early antiretroviral intervention in Primary HIV infection (PHI) on markers of bacterial translocation across the gut', Dr Elizabeth Hamlyn, Imperial College London
'Prevalence of, and factors associated with significant liver disease in HIV-infected patients exposed to didanosine and development of a screening strategy using transient elastography to identify sub-clinical disease', Dr Sarah Logan, Royal Free Hospital, London
'Microbial translocation, immune activation and accelerated progression of liver fibrosis in HIV/hepatitis C co-infection', Dr Emma Page, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London
'HIV Testing in Non-traditional Settings – The HINTS Study', Dr Michael Rayment, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London
'The Clinical Utility of Pulse Wave Velocity as a Measure of Arterial Stiffness in HIV-infected individuals', Dr Andrew Scourfield, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London
2008 winners
'The impact of chemotherapy with cART on cellular and viral resistance in HIV-infected patients with cancer', Dr Marta Boffito, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London
'Emerging resistance in patients who discontinue a suppressive NNRTI-containing regimen: detecting low frequency NNRTI resistant mutants by ultra-sensitive real-time PCR and determining their impact on subsequent virological suppression', Dr Ana Garcia‑Diaz, Royal Free Hospital, London
'A cross-sectional analysis of serological markers of cardiovascular risk in HAART-naïve HIV-infected individuals', Dr Laura Waters, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London
'An investigation into the prevalence of oral conditions in paediatric HIV', Dr Steven Welch, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital
2007 winners
'Evaluating the use of peripheral DEXA scans in the detection of osteoporosis in a population of HIV-infected men', Dr Yvonne Gilleece, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust. PUBLISHED Evaluation of peripheral dual energy X-ray absorptiometry to detect osteoporosis in an HIV-seropositive men population. HIV Medicine,10 (Suppl 1) 1-10)
'A study of HIV and anti-retroviral therapy-related renal tubular toxicity using urinary proteomics and metabonomics', Dr Andrew Hall, University College London
'Study to assess the frequency of persistence of Hepatitis C virus in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with previous HIV / Hepatitis C co-infection', Dr Emma Low, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London PUBLISHED The frequency of hepatitis C virus (HCV) persistence in peripheral blood mononueclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with previous HIV/hepatitis C co-infection. HIV Medicine, 10 (suppl 1) 11-56)
'Hepatitis C viral loads in seminal plasma during acute hepatitis C', Dr Joanna Turner, Mortimer Market Centre, London PUBLISHED Hepatitis C viral load in semen of HIV-positive men during acute and chronic hepatitis C infection. HIV Medicine, 11 (Supp 1) 1-19)
2006 winners
'The role of gut mucosa in protection from HIV', Dr Julie Fox, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London PUBLISHED The role of the gut mucosa in protection from HIV-1 in highly exposed persistently seronegative individual (HEPS). HIV Medicine, 10 (suppl 1) 1-10)
'The problems that patients bring to HIV clinical services in East London – what are they and how can they best be managed?' Dr Natalie Friend-du Preez, Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London. PUBLISHED 'I don't have fear go die, but I have fear don't have money'. When the health needs of HIV patients are overshadowed by their social needs. HIV Medicine, 9 (Suppl 1) 10-50)