To be named as one of the 2020 winners of the prestigious Robert Carr Research Award is an incredible recognition of the work of the team at Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC).

It demonstrates the critical role communities, and key populations can play in policy and research. It also validates the importance of collaboration between community groups and Academia. Such partnerships can only help to better serve the groups most affected by HIV and advance the regional HIV response.

The award is even more significant, given that it honours one of CVC’s founders, whose vision was for national programmes to have the relevant data to better understand the needs of our communities and design meaningful and targeted interventions.

The research, for which the award was presented will certainly provide important baseline data against which the success of any future interventions can be adequately measured.

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Editor’s note: PANCAP extends congratulations to the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) for achieving this well-deserved honour.

The Robert Carr Research Award, presented every two years at the International AIDS conference, recognizes the collaboration between community organizations and academic researchers to improve outcomes for highly stigmatized and underserved populations. It is sponsored jointly by the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations, Human Rights Watch, the International AIDS Society and the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.