In response to the growing problems related with HIV-infections industrialized countries responded with strategies to intensify the development of HIV-vaccines.INCO-projects and the formation of sizeable research clusters in the EU allowed strategies starting from molecular epidemiology to evaluation of vaccine candidates in primates and humans.Together with the Chinese Center for Disease Control early at onset of the HIV-epidemic in China relevant HIV-strains could be selected (B-clade RL42 and C-clade 97CN54,97CN54 is a B-C recombinant and the most prevalent strain in Western and North-Western provinces of China).