The Swiss AIDS Federation finances the costs of travel, accommodation, participation fees and a daily allowance for participants whenever possible. The office is responsible for selecting conferences, coordinating funds and managing delegations on site.

The calls for applications for 2026 have been closed. This year, we were able to facilitate participation and travel for the conferences listed below.

The calls for applications for 2027 will be issued at the end of 2026.

Selection criteria

The participants on the part of association members are selected by drawing lots if more people are interested in participating than there are places available. The expression of interest requires the fulfillment of the following criteria:

• You have not already received a conference participation via ACADEMY Conferences within the last 12 months.
• You are a member of the Strategy Commission or a specialist commission of Swiss AIDS Federation and the topics of the conference are of great relevance to the Swiss AIDS Federation.
• Conference are highly relevant to your own work.
• The conference is remunerated by the employer as working time.
• Participation in all conference days and informal meetings is guaranteed.
• During and after the conference, the content is made available to the entire association, e.g. in the form of blog posts.

Background information

For many years, doctors have been able to take part in important international conferences. For all other professionals working in the field of HIV/STI, who play a central role in prevention and counselling, there has hardly been an opportunity to do so. The majority of them were therefore excluded from international conferences and the associated networking and knowledge gains. The Academy Conferences programme, which will be launched in 2023, will give non-medical professionals the opportunity to attend conferences for the first time.

Funding is provided by grants from the pharmaceutical industry. The programme is managed by the Swiss AIDS Federation office. The companies have no influence on the choice of conferences or the selection of participants. The granting of the grant does not result in any other added value or other privilege for the companies. In 2024, Aids-Hilfe Schweiz received contributions from ViiV and Gilead. Are you also interested in contributing to the fund? Please contact the Swiss AIDS Federation office by e-mail or by telephone on 044 447 11 11.