ABSTRACT We examine public funding for health research through the United States National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center's AIDS International Training and Research Program, which sought to strengthen scientific capacity in AIDS‐endemic countries by providing African researchers with training opportunities in the U.S. We use a difference‐in‐differences framework with information on scientists who participated in the program and the research activities of African scientists working at their home institutions in adjacent topics of neglected tropical diseases. Relative to comparable scientists, those at institutions with returning trainees subsequently publish more on HIV‐related topics, receive more grant funding, engage in more clinical trials, and their work contributes to a greater number of policy documents. These patterns suggest that following the Fogarty program, research, innovation, and health policy related to the AIDS epidemic in African countries became more active.