Please note that the 2010 Annual General Meeting will take place during the upcoming CAHR Conference in Saskatoon. It will be held Saturday, May 15, in Gallery A of the TCU Convention Centre in Saskatoon, commencing at 6:30 pm.Among the items for business will be the election of members to the CAHR Council. This year, elections will be held to fill the following positions: Treasurer, Secretary, Clinical Sciences Rep., Social Sciences Rep. and Community Rep. The incumbents in these positions are all finishing their first term and thus are eligible for re-election to a second term.

Any active voting member of CAHR may submit items for the agenda of the AGM and/or nominate or re-nominate members for the above positions. If nominating a new Council member, the nominators must state the nominee’s name and full contact information as well as the position for which he/she is being nominated. For a nomination to be valid, the person must be nominated separately by at least two active voting CAHR members. (More information on membership can be found in the “Membership” section of this website.)

All nominations should be addressed to either Dr. Curtis Cooper, Honorary Secretary or Mr. Robert O’Neill, Executive Director, and emailed to: info@cahr-acrv.ca. Email nominations will be accepted until Noon on Saturday, May 15, 2010.

As of January 2010, CAHR’s new address is: One Nicholas Street, Ottawa, Suite 1105. The new office is piggybacked with the office of the Canadian Society of International Health, which is providing the administrative services.

An official opening and open house for the new facility will be held sometime in March.

In addition to CAHR-2010, there are also many other exciting events taking place this year. They include the following:

May 2010

• AMMI 2010: CAHR is pleased to be a co-sponsor of the annual conference of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (AMMI), which is taking place in Edmonton, Alberta, from May 6 to 8, 2010. Click here to visit the Conference website.

June 2010

• Canadian Working Group on HIV and Rehab (CWGHR) Forum & Annual General Meeting, June 12-13, 2010 “Breaking Barriers, Advancing Access: Collaborating to Enhance Rehabilitation for People Living with HIV and other Episodic Disabilities”. More information can be found on the CWGHR website: http://www.hivandrehab.ca
• Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network 12th Annual General Meeting, June 14th-18th, 2010, Marriott River Cree Resort  Enoch, Alberta. More information can be found on the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network’s website: http://www.caan.ca/
• G8 Summit Meeting, June 25-26, Huntsville, Ontario
• G20 Summit Meeting, June 25-26, Toronto, Ontario

July 2010

• ISSTDR 2011: CAHR is proud to be affiliated with the 19th Conference of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Diseases Research (ISSTDR), which will take place in Québec City, from July 10 to 13, 2011. Click here to visit the Conference website.
• XVIII International AIDS Conference, July 18 to 23, 2010,Vienna, Austria. Click here to visit the Conference website.

September 2010

• World AIDS Vaccine Conference, September 28 to October 1, 2010, Atlanta Georgia. More information can be found at: http://www.hivvaccineenterprise.org/conference/2010/important_dates .php

October 2010

• CAHR Council Planning Retreat, October 15 - 17, Wakefield, Québec

December 2010

• World AIDS Day, December 1, 2010

The list of previous winners of CAHR’s Red Ribbon Award reads like a ‘who’s who’ of HIV activism in Canada: Evan Collins (2009), Réné Lavoie (2008), John Maxwell (2007), James Kreppner (2006), David Hoe (2005), Louise Binder (2004), Roger Leclerc (2003), Ralph Jurgens (2002) and Maggie Atkinson (2001).

The Association is currently accepting nominations for the tenth winner of this prestigious award. It is presented annually to an individual who has given “outstanding service to the cause of research in a way that has increased our understanding of the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, while enhancing the quality of life of those living with this disease”.

The ideal nominee should possess the following qualities:

• commitment to the involvement of affected communities in HIV research;
• professional and/or volunteer service over several years to the cause of research;
• strong voice in support and/or advocacy for the role of research in HIV prevention or treatment;
• use of evidence in HIV prevention or treatment work, activities, publications etc.;
• contribution in promoting excellence in HIV research; 
• collaboration and cooperation with HIV research communities;
• engagement in ongoing dialogue and knowledge exchange between HIV research communities and the broader AIDS and PLWA community;
• current or previous residence in Canada over several years;
• demonstration of these criteria in a primarily Canadian setting or in Canada and internationally.

Please email your nomination plus a brief description (less than one page) of that person’s service to HIV/AIDS research and the reasons why he/she should be selected for this year’s award. The email address is: info@cahr-acrv.ca

All nominations must be received by April 01, 2010.

A Red Ribbon Award Committee will review the nominations and make a recommendation to CAHR for consideration. The 2010 recipient will be announced during the upcoming CAHR Conference in Saskatoon and published on the CAHR website.

In the December, 2009, CAHR announced the results of its first ever competition for HIV studentship awards, which were created for the purpose of supporting the training of new scientists committed to doing HIV research in Canada. This year’s winner’s are:

• in Basic Science: Winnie Apidi (a PhD student in Medical Microbiology at the University of Manitoba. Her supervisor is Dr. Blake Ball.) Her project is: Epigenetics of Dipeptidyl peptidase IV as a novel marker for HIV resistance among Nairobi sex workers.
• in Epidemiology: Shamara Baidoobonso (a PhD student in Population Epidemiology at the University of Western Ontario. Her supervisor is Dr. Greta Bauer.) Her project is: Black African and Caribbean Health Study: an analysis of the Social Context of HIV Vulnerability.
• in Social Science: Angela Picard (a PhD student in Health and Behavioural Science at the University of Toronto. Her supervisor is Dr. Peggy Millson.) Her project is: Impact of a peer-based health services intervention model on treatment access and vulnerability to HIV/HCV coinfection among injection drug users.
• in Clinical Science: Rachel Wade (a PhD student in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UBC. Her supervisor is Dr. Helene Coté.) Her project is: a study of the long-term effects of HAART and Ribavirin on HEP-G2 cell mitochondria.

These studentships are being conducted in collaboration with two of Canada’s most prominent HIV training centres: the OHTN’s Universities Without Walls Program and the University of Manitoba’s International Infectious Diseases Program.

Three of the studentships are being funded by CAHR, while the fourth, the Clinical Science studentship, is being funded by an unrestricted educational grant from Gilead Sciences Limited.