Dr Burns was the Principle Investigator for SONHIA (the study of newly diagnosed HIV infection amongst Africans in London), the MRC-funded SALLEE project (Sexual attitudes & lifestyles of London’s Eastern Europeans), and the NIHR funded studies Haus (Feasibility and acceptability of home sampling kits to increase the uptake of HIV testing among black Africans in the United Kingdom)  and REACH (Retention and Engagement Across Care services for HIV positive patients). She was co-lead on the Migrant Health work-package  within  the European network of HIV/AIDS cohort studies to coordinate European and International level Clinical Research on HIV/AIDS (Eurocoord) and led on the aMASE project.  Her research demonstrating HIV transmission post migration within African communities in the UK has been translated to a European level with similar findings in migrant gay communities.  Dr Burns  co-led on the NIHR funded evaluation of the London HIV prevention Programme and was a co-investigator on Pantheon (A comprehensive assessment of the cost-effectiveness of HIV prevention and testing strategies, including HIV self-testing, among men who have sex with men in the UK) and SANTE (Sexual risk reduction interventions for patients attending sexual health clinics; feasibility to conduct an effectiveness trial). 

Dr Burns helped establish and is PI on the HIV NIHR BioResource. The BioResource collects and stores blood samples and derivatives including DNA from HIV positive individuals. It will take advantage of links with the UK Collaborative HIV Cohort Study and the UK HIV Drug Resistance Database to explore host genetic predictors/correlates with a range of clinical and virology phenotypes.