CIPRA - Comprehensive International Program of Research on AIDS is a programme sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Division of AIDS (DAIDS). It is the first programme sponsored by the NIH that funds foreign institutions directly. The CIPRA-SA group including seven organisations from both Johannesburg and Cape Town received the largest award to date, $36.8 million (± R250 Million). The programme started in September 2002 with the first patients being enrolling in these projects by the first quarter of 2005 and funding continues though to August 2010.

These organisations include the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU), Clinical HIV Research Unit (CHRU), Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit (RMPRU), Reproductive Health Research Unit (RHRU) as divisions of Wits Health Consortium (WHC), University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) as the primary grant holder.

Secondary grant holders include: University of Cape Town (UCT), The Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation (DTHF) and the University of Stellenbosch (US), The Children's Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Unit (KID-CRU).

CIPRA-SA includes five projects ranging from family treatment through either a doctor format or a primary health care nurse format, a novel approach to paediatric treatment, bacterial conjugate vaccines, TB studies and laboratory studies to identify inexpensive monitoring tests for HIV infected people. In addition, there are two cores: an administrative core and a central laboratory core. The PHRU oversees the administrative core which covers all administrative needs, project management needs, statistics and data management needs, financial oversight, regulatory requirements and safety reporting requirements in the form of a Safety Desk. The National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) of South Africa in the form of a private affiliate, Contract Laboratory Services (CLS), act as the central laboratory core for all projects in the programme.