Microbicide Research and Development (R&D) to Advance HIV Prevention Technologies through Responsive Innovation and eXcellence (MATRIX) is a five-year cooperative agreement with USAID to develop a range of feasible products (acceptable, affordable, scalable, and deliverable) to meet the unmet needs of women at risk of HIV. This ambitious and highly innovative program is led by the Magee-Women’s Research Institute at the University of Pittsburgh and the project brings together 19 partner organizations from Sub-Saharan Africa and North America, with expertise in product development, clinical trials, social and behavioral research and market and business case development.
The MATRIX collaborative includes several activity hubs to support product developers in on-boarding new products or mitigating unanticipated technical challenges; to provide end-user and stakeholder feedback on modifiable attributes of the product, its value proposition and market segments; to develop business cases, investor linkages and analytics and provide opportunities throughout the collaborative for tailored mentorship and training.
PZAT is a member of the MATRIX Consortium and falls under the Design 2 Delivery (D2D) hub which is a product neutral consultative working group using an adaptive integrated model with innovative Socio-Behavioral Research (SBR).