Page 2 - Kipaji Newsletter - Edition 1

A BRILLIANT FIRST MEETING! THE

The first in-person meeting of the 2. To identify/select existing immunogens BRILLIANT
Consortium was held on the 22 & 23 and adjuvants available for evaluation
January 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa. in BRILLIANT.
The meeting brought together the partners WAY…
of the Consortium to strategize and plan 3. To map existing lab capabilities and
their Year 1 activities. Each workstream resources at BRILLIANT consortium
in the Consortium focuses on specific and partner sites (incl. ADVANCE A NEW APPROACH TO
objectives and some of the activities for sites) in Africa and prepare selected COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IN
Year 1 included; laboratories to participate in BRILLIANT VACCINE TRIALS
clinical trials.
1. To carry out an evaluation of skills UNAIDS estimates that 70% of the world’s
amongst advocates and community 38 million people living with HIV, live in Africa.
stakeholders for the purpose of Even with highly effective interventions,
developing an advocacy agenda for BRILLIANT Consortium Partners at the in person such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP),
BRILLIANT. meeting in Cape Town, South Africa HIV persists. HIV disproportionately affects
people who have constrained power in
society, such as young women, transgender
people and people who use drugs. An HIV
vaccine offers significant hope: there can
be durable immunity and an end to the
intractable epidemic. The discovery of a
sufficiently effective HIV vaccine remains
elusive and requires a multi-disciplinary
effort, and - due to the asymmetrical HIV
burden on women in Sub-Saharan Africa
- a women-led, African-led approach. And
even that approach will not work without
the communities, which make research
possible.
Scientific breakthroughs depend on
meaningful community engagement and
this is at the centre of the BRILLIANT
Consortium’s work.

SPEND A DAY

WITH ME…

AT A CLINICAL TRIAL SITE
As you will find out in the coming weeks, the
BRILLIANT Consortium works alongside
some really cool clinical research sites. To
ensure that sites are aware of (and ready
for!) all of the BRILLIANT research coming
their way the Consortium visits the sites.
You can see a map with all of our BRILLIANT
sites here.
As part of the groundwork for BRILLIANT
001, Community Activists participated
in site visits to evaluate community
engagement practices, recruitment
strategies, and the consent process in the
context of Phase 1 HIV vaccine trials. The
Community Engagement Workstream team
interacted extensively with the different
sites staff and community representatives
to gather insights into operational
effectiveness and community integration.
Barrack Owino, our Partnerships and
Advocacy Lead, joined the site assessment
team at the Kenya Medical Research
Institute-Walter Reed Project CRS in
Kericho, Kenya. Here, he revisits his time at
the site.

Site Assessment Visit Team at Kenya
Medical Research Institute-Walter Reed
Project CRS
The KEMRI-WRP Community
Engagement Site Assessment
Visit in a nutshell