This track will focus on the latest research, debates, dialogues, strategic information, surveillance, and projections on the epidemiology of HIV and related comorbidities and our trajectory towards reaching the goal of epidemic control. The track will review innovative models that can improve HIV-related health outcomes especially for vulnerable groups in high-burden contexts. Technological advances in mathematical modelling critical for accurately determining effective interventions that can reduce HIV transmission will also be included. This track will also cover the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on HIV related activities on HIV outcomes, as well as adaptations that benefited HIV service delivery during the pandemic. Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic that can support the healthcare needs and interventions for those living with or affected by HIV and other HIV-related co-morbidities, and how future pandemic preparedness can be strategized.

This track focuses on issues related to the prevention, treatment, and eradication of HIV. Specifically, the track covers advances in various aspects of host genetics, virology, immunology, microbiology, and systems biology that are relevant to understanding viral infection, pathogenesis, persistence, and synergies with agents of other global pandemics. The track explores advances in biomedical strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat, and cure infections, with a particular interest in mechanisms of action, the potential for drug resistance, and biological means of undermining intervention efficacy.

Track 3 seeks to recentre social behavioural sciences at the core of the HIV response. This track will focus on AIDS-related research, policy and interventions presented from a socio-behavioural perspective. The research that will be explored will place special attention on the factors that influence individuals and groups behaviour in relation to how and why they make decisions about their health and wellbeing, and about how these intersect with society and institutions in response to the AIDS epidemic. The research analyses these factors and how knowledge is used to inform behaviour change, interventions (including policies) that predict, prevent, and support HIV affected individuals and populations, as well as help people understand the virus and live with the disease. This track encourages research and interventions that privilege the experiences and voices of individuals and groups in communities, for example, through community-based participatory research and Indigenous knowledge systems.

The Implementation Science track will focus on how the most effective HIV interventions and innovations reach the people that need them most, particularly in resource limited settings. We will profile all aspects of intervention planning, testing, delivery, and scale, including supply chain, forecasting, and planning, policy and guideline development, provider training, service delivery platforms, community engagement, demand creation, client support, monitoring, and evaluation. We will share experiences on how effective HIV prevention and treatment innovations and technologies including biomedical, digital, diagnostic, service delivery and health systems have been integrated into routine care and with other services. We will also highlight novel methodologies for rigorous evaluation of health systems innovations.

This track focuses on social, political, economic and health system policies that negatively or positively influence an individual’s or community’s response to the AIDS epidemic; this may include reversing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to achieving the UNAIDS 95-95-95 fast-track goals. Included in this track is research which makes use of health economics, including cost analyses, investment cases, and economic evaluations involving HIV/TB interventions. The track also describes interventions that would potentially remove barriers to health policies and accelerate implementation. The track also investigates the feasibility around funding commitments of health policies and the ethics of their sustainability, as well as ethical issues around funding availability for research to inform specifically identified policy gaps.

This track focuses on the critical role that young people in their diversity play in the HIV response by reflecting on their lived experiences and how that impacts their psyche and decision process. It seeks to unpack the persisting social and structural barriers, that negatively impact young people’s access to services. Furthermore, it must examine the alignment of policies and practices affecting the youth in relation to their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). This track should explore new innovative approaches that promote meaningful youth engagement and participation in decision-making spaces towards a sustained health and well-being.