Centre For Infectious Disease Research In Zambia

Centre For Infectious Disease Research In Zambia, doing business as Cidrz, is a non-profit international organization headquartered in Lusaka, Zambia, that conducts federal health research and clinical trial work as a grant recipient (69% of recent awards) and subrecipient across the National Institutes of Health and bilateral health agencies, with a secondary role as a subcontractor on USAID-funded implementation projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

Cidrz operates predominantly as a subrecipient and subcontractor (69% of 80 total awards), not as a prime grant holder or contract awardee. The organization's federal footprint is concentrated in NIH research and training awards under the International Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.989) and related NIH divisional mechanisms, supplemented by USAID and Defense Health Agency cooperative agreements focused on HIV/AIDS prevention, laboratory capacity strengthening, and health workforce development in Zambia. Recent prime grant awards include a $548,242 Fogarty International Center award (August 2026) to conduct the CAREZ study—a hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial evaluating task-shifted cardiometabolic disease screening and management among people living with HIV across 12 urban Lusaka communities through May 31, 2031—and a $133,103 Fogarty award (August 2026) to establish and operate the BEAT-HBV research training program on hepatitis B virus, training U.S. and Zambian early-stage investigators and postdoctoral fellows through April 30, 2031. A $26.2 million Defense Health Agency cooperative agreement (awarded September 2023) supports Zambia Defense Force HIV/AIDS prevention programs through September 2026. Cidrz also holds a $26.2 million Center for Global Health cooperative agreement (awarded September 2023) for transitioning laboratory services to Zambia's Ministry of Health to sustain the 95-95-95 HIV targets through September 2028, operating as lead consortium member alongside the Association of Public Health Laboratories, Wits Health Consortium, and other partners.

Customer concentration sits heavily with the National Institutes of Health divisions, which account for 71% of recent awards. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute leads with 16 awards; the National Institute of Mental Health holds 15; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases carries 13; and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism accounts for 7. The USAID Mission in Zambia anchors 6 awards. Across this customer base, Cidrz operates as a subrecipient on research and implementation grants from U.S. universities serving as prime grantees—notably The Washington University, University of Connecticut Health Center, The Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Columbia University, and others—and as a clinical-lead subcontractor on the USAID Zambia Integrated Health project under prime Pact, Inc. (sub-awards dated August 2025 and December 2023).

Cidrz's federal research footprint centers on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, and noncommunicable disease research in Zambian populations, leveraging the country's robust community health infrastructure and epidemiological burden as an implementation laboratory for U.S.-developed interventions. Recent subgrant work includes enrollment and follow-up of study participants in Washington University trials on HIV care reengagement strategies; testing point-of-care diagnostic devices for HPV, HIV, and HBV under University of Connecticut Health Center awards; screening and enrolling participants in Johns Hopkins University studies on TB case-finding and blood-borne viral epidemiology; and operating as a site partner on University of Alabama at Birmingham cooperative agreement projects on HIV-alcohol comorbidities and HBV-HIV coinfection mechanisms. Activity has contracted year over year—from 16 awards in 2022 to 5 in 2026 through August—with only 2 awards reaching ultimate completion in the next twenty-four months, indicating limited near-term recompete pressure. Service Contract Inventory records for Cidrz show minimal SCI-reportable federal service-contract activity: 155 FTEs delivered on sub-contracts in FY2024 and 55.3 FTEs in FY2025, reflecting Cidrz's position as a research and implementation subrecipient rather than a services contractor. The vendor does not hold federal contract prime awards, IDIQs, or government-wide acquisition vehicles.