• To provide strong institutional leadership in HIV/AIDS at Vanderbilt University, Meharry Medical College, Nashville CARES and the Tennessee Department of Health.
• To support multidisciplinary HIV research that leverages the highly collaborative local environment to build impactful team science among the four institutions of the CFAR.
• To nurture and support career development of junior investigators, so as to grow the number and diversity of the next generation of HIV researchers.
• To specifically enable HIV research opportunities for MMC investigators, to include engagement with investigators and resources across the CFAR and leveraging team science.
• To continue to grow a broad emphasis on HIV-focused community engaged research (CEnR) that pervades the CFAR and with a focus on ending the epidemic.

The Tennessee CFAR is located in the Southeastern United States (US), the region with the greatest burden of HIV. The HIV epidemic in Tennessee impacts both urban and rural areas. Since the CFAR was established in 2015, an effective Administrative Core (AC) has been vital to its success. CFAR funding is significantly leveraged to amplify the impact on HIV research at the participating institutions. The infrastructure and organization created by CFAR, and managed by the AC, provides connectivity and direction to HIV research, has generated many collaborations that never would have occurred otherwise, is fostering career development of early stage investigators, and having resultant impact toward the goal of ending the epidemic and improving the lives of people living with HIV. This CFAR was established upon a foundational relationship between Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and Meharry Medical College (MMC), and in 2015 we pioneered a new partnership with Tennessee Department of Health (TDH). Starting in 2020, Nashville CARES (hereafter simply called “CARES”) will join CFAR as a partner. CARES is a sophisticated HIV community-based organization with considerable research experience. This creates new opportunities to extend not only into the community of persons living with HIV, but to also better access individuals at risk for becoming infected, far beyond what is possible for VUMC, MMC and/or TDH alone. The AC is particularly important given the need to coordinate activities and resources across multiple institutions, each with a distinct yet complementary mission. The AC must be innovative, flexible and engaged so as to achieve the Specific Aims of the CFAR, with our goals being to contribute to the end of the HIV epidemic in Tennessee, the US and globally, to mentor the next generation of HIV researchers, and to help address NIH priorities for HIV/AIDS research. The work of the AC is grounded in fostering mutual trust and effective communication, maximizing value through efficient use of financial and human resources, and commitment to serving the needs of HIV researchers across the partner institutions. The AC is balanced between being proactive in strategically planning and changing to meet needs and promote innovation, and being responsive to unforeseen needs of members, opportunities and advances in the field as they arise, in addition to being supportive of ongoing research activity. The AC is the “operating system” of the CFAR – overseeing resources and creating a collaborative environment for CFAR users through Cores and Scientific Working Groups (SWG), respectively; receiving and synthesizing input from users; modifying resources; and refining the process in real-time.