Scientific Administrative Core

The PHACS Scientific Administrative Core (SAC) provides oversight, support, and guidance to the Scientific Leadership Committee (SLC), which includes experts in various scientific disciplines.

The SAC operates under the direction of the mPIs of PHACS, and is based at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard). Day-to-day administration and finance are led by the PHACS Program Director and Director of Finance, respectively. The SAC consists of the above individuals along with the Westat, Inc. Project Director and the Director of the PHACS Data Management Center (DMC) at Frontier Science as well as additional staff who support the work of this Core.

The charge of the SAC is to:

1. Coordinate all program project grant/research activities, including the activities of the Scientific Leadership Committee (SLC), Working Groups (WG) and Task Forces (TFs) as well as support Cores (ESC, HECC and DRC) to ensure effective and efficient conduct of the program;

2. Facilitate the implementation of collaborations with other networks and the greater HIV scientific research community;

3. Implement the overall Project Management Plan and timelines and monitor progress with respect to milestones;

4. Maintain PHACS Bylaws and policies;

5. Implement and enforce the Conflict of Interest policy to ensure compliance with all Federal regulations and NIH policies applying to the conduct of research involving human;

6.  Encourage the mentoring of new and early stage investigators that will foster career development to develop independent research careers;

7. Conduct a competition for the PHACS Early Career Investigator Award (ECI). The SAC will disperse the funds, develop deliverables and timelines, and maintain oversight of awardees’ performance;

8. Execute and manage subcontracts for members of the SLC, ECIs and Emerging Research Pilots (ERPs) and any partner institutions falling within the SAC’s management, and disperse and maintain oversight of the funds;

9. Support the activities of the PHACS External Advisory Board (EAB);

10. Facilitate an annual network meeting and annual leadership retreat to review accomplishments and plan the network agenda;

11. Serve as a shared resource to all PHACS Research Projects and Cores.