The collaborative research study “Real Time Phylogeny and Contact Tracing to Disrupt HIV Transmission” is conducted to evaluate the benefits of integrating different methods - contact tracing used to obtain social information from HIV-infected persons, and phylogenetics used to compare HIV between infected persons - to disrupt HIV transmission in the state of Rhode Island. The strong partnership between the state’s Department of Health and its academic institutions significantly enhances the public health impact of this research and help bring small Rhode Island closer to its goal of being the first state to get to zero new HIV infections.