Liverpool, June 2025 — The META Trial Consortium convened for its annual meeting in Liverpool at a critical moment in the study’s timeline. With clinical follow-up nearing completion, the meeting provided an opportunity to take stock of progress, address ongoing challenges, and align on next steps to ensure long-term impact.

Bringing together investigators, policymakers, and partners—including Tanzania’s Ministry of Health, the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), and Merck—the meeting also fulfilled the trial’s required annual review with the Independent Steering Committee.

A key focus was the importance of continued policy engagement. While the Consortium has previously shared updates with policymakers in Tanzania, the Liverpool meeting marked a renewed opportunity to deepen this dialogue. Dissemination efforts are not only about sharing emerging findings, but also about understanding the evolving priorities of decision-makers and the types of evidence most useful to them. These exchanges help ensure that research outputs remain relevant and actionable. There was broad support for continued follow-up of the cohort beyond the end of the trial, with discussions drawing on international examples and potential models for sustained data collection. The meeting also served as a space to reflect on operational lessons from the trial so far, including the practicalities of metabolic screening in HIV clinics. Looking ahead, the experience of following people with prediabetes over time may offer important insights for monitoring and managing diabetes more broadly.

With trial close-out preparations underway, attention now turns to data cleaning and readiness for analysis, while maintaining momentum on policy dialogue and the generation of evidence to guide future research and decision-making.

“The meeting confirmed our shared commitment—not just to completing the trial, but to generating robust evidence that can help inform the future direction of care and policy for people living with HIV,”
 — Dr. Anupam Garrib, University College London, and Coordinator of the META Trial