The Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa was founded by the Universities of Natal, Cape Town, and the Western Cape, the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

The founding members are aware of the extent of the AIDS pandemic and the effect that it is having on the populations of South Africa in particular, and on communities in developing countries in general. Since they have experience, skills and expertise in a number of scientific and medical areas which they have already put to use in developing and understanding of, and various means to deal with the AIDS pandemic, each of the members believes that collaboration and co-operation with each other and with other parties will bring together a pool of experience and expertise that will have the potential to make seminal contributions to the understanding of aspects of the AIDS pandemic.

CAPRISA's goal is to develop and undertake globally relevant and locally responsive research that

The founding activities of CAPRISA comprise of two projects: the Acute Infection Project and the TB-ARV Trial - both of which are currently well under way.

CAPRISA is supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institute of Health (NIH) and US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

The CAPRISA programme was launched in July 2002 when the key leaders had their first meeting at the University of Natal.

The three main goals of CAPRISA is to research prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, to build research infrastructure and capacity and to train more researchers in South Africa.