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The Division of AIDS (DAIDS) administers a portfolio of contracts that can be used to assist investigators in the preclinical development and evaluation of their new therapies and microbicide-based prevention strategies. The specific capabilities of the various contracts are detailed throughout this Resource Guide. An investigator wishing to have a project assigned to one or more of these contracts should submit their request for assistance to DAIDS following this general procedure:

1. Requests must be submitted in writing to DAIDS and be accompanied by a data package (see guidelines for submission of data for detailed information). A Disclosure Agreement can be executed at the investigator's request prior to submission of written materials. Each page of the Resource Guide that describes a particular contract resource also lists the name, phone number, and e-mail address of a DAIDS staff member to whom inquiries for additional information should be directed.

2. Requests are reviewed in a confidential manner by the appropriate DAIDS standing committee (DAIDS Preclinical Therapeutics Development Committee, Opportunistic Infections Working Group, or Topical Microbicides Working Group) comprised of staff from DAIDS and other Federal entities. Criteria used by the committees in evaluating requests include:
   
   • Scientific merit of the proposed therapy or prevention strategy (rationale, disease impact, novelty)
   • Relevance of the proposed therapy or prevention strategy to NIAID's research agenda
   • Soundness of the development plan and importance of the request in advancing that plan
   • Evidence of investigator commitment (availability of preliminary studies, plans for a clinical protocol, potential support for clinical trials)
   • Ability of DAIDS' contract resources to fulfill the objectives of the request
   • Competing workload priorities within the individual contracts
   
   
3. Committee recommendations are transmitted back to the investigator by the DAIDS staff member to whom inquiries initially were made or by a committee designee.

4. If contract assistance is recommended by DAIDS a Screening Agreement or Material Transfer Agreement can be executed at the investigator's request between DAIDS and the investigator.

5. Instructions will be provided to the investigator for shipping compounds to DAIDS' repository, which in turn will forward the compounds to the appropriate DAIDS contractors.

6. The testing results or developmental products will be provided to the investigator by DAIDS staff at the completion of the project.