CAPRISA was formally established in 2002 as a not-for profit AIDS research organisation under the NIH-funded Comprehensive International Program of Research on AIDS (CIPRA) by five partner institutions: University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of Cape Town, University of Western Cape, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, and Columbia University in New York. CAPRISA has diverse expertise, including epidemiology, biostatistics, virology, immunology, diagnostics, infectious disease medicine, pharmacy, vaccinology, health communication, and health policy.