At the invitation of Professor Laio Magno, coordinator of the “PrEP na Comunidade” project, representatives of Fiotec were in Salvador, Bahia, in early April to take part in the official program of COMPreP, as the study is known. The unprecedented initiative aims to assess the effectiveness of providing PrEP among adolescents and young people in community settings, that is, outside healthcare facilities.

The meetings brought together, in addition to the Fiotec team, representatives from Fiocruz Bahia and the national and international institutions involved in the project. The first day of activities took place at the State University of Bahia (UNEB), and was dedicated to presentations of results already achieved and to defining methodologies, committees, and operational workflows. A technical visit was also carried out to the new “PrEPara Salvador” space, located at the university itself, a facility that will be essential for implementing the project’s activities with communities in the capital of Bahia.

The second day of the agenda was dedicated to a technical discussion on HIV response strategies, as well as simultaneous meetings on the proper use of participant data and the funder’s requirements, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States. On April 10, a specific meeting also took place between the Fiotec team and Dr. Nic Carlisle, during which strategic points related to project implementation and, in particular, the accountability reports already submitted by the project were discussed. In the afternoon, the official launch of the COMPrEP Project took place, with the participation of institutional representatives, the scientific community, public managers, and civil society.

According to Semíramis Alves, from the International Projects team at Fiotec, the meeting was important in reaffirming the significance of the institution’s integrated role in the project’s initiation, execution, and accountability phases. For the analyst, this working model enables faster responses aligned with the funder’s requirements and also

reinforces Fiotec’s commitment to excellence in the administrative and financial management of initiatives such as COMPrEP. “The coordination also highlighted the work of our colleague Rafaela Delduque in the project’s initiation phase, which, according to them, was decisive in making this international partnership possible. Without this successful process, we would have risked being unable to implement the project,” she noted.

The COMPrEP Project (PrEP in the Community) is developed by researchers from Fiocruz Bahia, the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), the State University of Bahia (UNEB), the University of São Paulo (USP), and the University of Alabama (USA), in partnership with the Ministry of Health, state and municipal health departments, and civil society organizations. Fiotec is responsible for the financial and administrative management of the study, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).