ABSTRACT
In the earliest days of the epidemic, AIDS remained in the shadows as the national spotlight and federal resources were directed elsewhere. For a worldwide epidemic that would eventually explode to claim millions of lives and from the perspective of historically disenfranchised communities, funds for research support seemed frustratingly slow in coming. In 1983, in response to delays at the federal level and before the cause of AIDS was known, the state of California entered into a unique partnership with the University of California to support research on AIDS (Das et al., 1991). This partnership, called the Universitywide AIDS Research Program (UARP) grew out of a collaboration of policymakers and a core group of UC faculty when there was no coherent national research policy for addressing the epidemic.
