This track focuses on advances in basic and clinical science across HIV prevention, treatment and long-term care. It will cover new prevention approaches, including long-acting prevention, vaccines, antibodies and emerging prevention technologies, as well as optimisation of antiretroviral treatment through improved efficacy, tolerability, resistance management, treatment-failure approaches and long-acting treatment. The track will include research on HIV persistence and cure, including viral reservoirs, immune responses and remission strategies, and advances in the diagnosis, prevention and clinical management of HIV and TB coinfection. It will also address mental health and neurocognitive disorders in people living with HIV, including clinical assessment, treatment evidence and interactions with psychiatric conditions and therapies. As people with HIV live longer, the track will examine ageing, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, cancers, multimorbidity and polypharmacy, alongside clinical issues affecting people across the life course, including children, adolescents, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and older adults.

This track focuses on understanding the changing South African HIV epidemic and strengthening the data systems needed to monitor and respond to it. It will examine trends in incidence and mortality and inequalities by geography, age, sex and population, as well as approaches to measuring the consequences of funding withdrawal across prevention coverage, testing, linkage to care, retention and health outcomes, including distinguishing observed effects from modelled projections. The track will explore how key populations can be more effectively represented in data through improved population-size estimates, service-coverage measures and confidential surveillance approaches, while strengthening prevention indicators for adolescents and young people to capture access, continued engagement and unmet need. It will also consider the integration of HIV, TB, sexual and reproductive health, mental health and community data; approaches for following people as they move between facilities and NGO and public services, including treatment interruption and re-engagement; and the role of community-generated evidence, community-led monitoring, data quality, privacy and accountability in translating data into action.

This track focuses on the governance, financing, costing and economic dimensions of sustaining the HIV response following US funding withdrawal. It will examine national and provincial responsibilities for managing the transition, transition planning and accountability for emerging service gaps, alongside strategies for sustainably financing HIV prevention while meeting the continuing costs of treatment. The track will consider the costs of replacing lost services and capabilities, including outreach, peer navigation, youth programmes, key-population services, data support and technical capacity. It will explore sustainable approaches to funding NGOs and community-led organisations through public contracting, commissioning and payment arrangements, as well as the organisational sustainability of these partners. The track will also examine the economics of service integration, including when integration improves efficiency and when it may increase costs or weaken effective specialised services. Particular attention will be given to priority-setting under resource constraints by balancing affordability, cost-effectiveness, equity and the longer-term consequences of prevention gaps, while protecting the workforce, research capacity and institutional knowledge developed through donor-supported programmes.

This track focuses on strengthening health systems and service-delivery models to maintain an integrated HIV response as existing support structures change. It will examine how prevention delivery can be rebuilt through outreach, testing, condom provision, PrEP access and continuity of prevention support, while developing differentiated service models that respond to the needs of sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people, people who inject drugs and people in prisons. The track will address adolescent- and youth-responsive services, including accessible service hours, confidential care, peer support, school and community linkages, and transitions to adult care. It will also explore coordinated delivery of HIV and TB screening, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up, as well as feasible approaches to integrating mental health and substance-use services into HIV care through appropriate workforce support, referral pathways and continuity of care. The track will consider how differentiated care, medicine collection, patient navigation, retention and re-engagement can maintain treatment outcomes, and how government, NGOs and communities can work together to preserve trusted access points, specialised skills and effective referral networks.

This track focuses on the behavioural, social and policy factors that influence HIV prevention, engagement in care and equitable access to services. It will examine how trust, risk perception, relationships, individual preferences and the acceptability of prevention options shape prevention choices and sustained engagement. The track will explore meaningful participation by adolescents and young people through youth-led design, agency and confidentiality, while addressing stigma, discrimination and exclusion experienced in healthcare settings and communities, particularly among key populations. It will consider the interconnected effects of HIV, gender-based violence, poverty, food insecurity and economic dependence, as well as the influence of mental health, trauma, social isolation, coping and social support on prevention and care. The track will also examine community leadership, advocacy and accountability, including the protection of civic participation and the ability of affected communities to influence services, together with health-policy issues such as consent, confidentiality, school access, migration and mobility that may create barriers to equitable HIV prevention and care.