Fiscal Year 2027 NIH HIV/AIDS Professional Judgment Budget
On August 20, 2026, the NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR) released the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 NIH HIV/AIDS Professional Judgment Budget. This document highlights specific research opportunities that, in OAR’s professional judgment, may benefit from increased investment to end the HIV pandemic.
The research opportunities highlighted in the FY 2027 NIH HIV/AIDS Professional Judgment Budget align with the NIH HIV research priorities that will be represented in the upcoming FY 2026-2030 NIH Strategic Plan for HIV and HIV-Related Research.
FY 2027 NIH HIV/AIDS Professional Judgment Budget
The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 requires that every year OAR “estimate the amounts necessary for the agencies of the National Institutes of Health to carry out all AIDS activities determined by the Director of the Office to be appropriate, without regard to the probability that such amounts will be appropriated.”
Over the last four decades, sustained investment in HIV research at NIH has enabled progressive scientific advances that have transformed HIV infection—once a fatal diagnosis—into a chronic infectious condition. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has evolved from limited, complicated, and poorly tolerated regimens to once-daily fixed-dose combination drugs that suppress HIV to undetectable levels. This not only improves the health of the person with HIV but also prevents them from transmitting HIV to their sexual partners, an effect known as U=U (undetectable=untransmittable). Long-acting antiretroviral drugs for prevention and treatment are newly available, and ART for the prevention of perinatal HIV transmission has been widely adopted, substantially reducing the number of infants born with HIV.
Despite global decreases in HIV acquisition and AIDS-related deaths over the past two decades, HIV remains a serious public health challenge. An estimated 41.0 million people were living with HIV across the world in 20251, including more than 1 million people in the United States2. Gaps in diagnosis and treatment are particularly concerning, with disparities that are compounded by social determinants of health.
The FY 2027 NIH HIV/AIDS Professional Judgment Budget supports the overarching NIH priority to accelerate implementation science to end the HIV epidemic. This necessitates advancing HIV science across the research-to-practice continuum to produce innovative, effective, and implementable prevention, treatment, and cure interventions. OAR estimates the additional funding for expanded NIH HIV research at $1.059 billion, or 32 percent, over the FY 2026 enacted budget of $3.294 billion.
The FY 2027 NIH HIV/AIDS Professional Judgment Budget highlights five areas where recent findings show exciting potential to advance the health of people affected by HIV:
- Accelerate implementation science to end the HIV epidemic
- Develop new technologies for self-testing and multiplex testing
- Understand and treat HIV-related co-occurring conditions
- Advance progress towards an HIV cure
- Strengthen HIV data sharing and harmonization
Download the FY 2027 NIH HIV/AIDS Professional Judgment Budget for more information.
Additional Resources
This page last reviewed on August 20, 2026