As the HIV epidemic passes its 35 years mark, the role of multidisciplinary approaches to HIV research has become increasingly important. Development of diverse, cross-cutting research teams has been found to be key to engaging and retaining participants in population-based studies; it is also a crucial component of designing studies capable of examining the sensitive and nuanced issues that surround HIV related risk and adherence behavior. Expanding our understanding of these issues is central to being able to overcome them and ultimately to the development of best practices for translation of research discovery into improvements in prevention and care. The objectives of this paper are to characterize the importance of multidisciplinary teams in HIV research where they are critical to gaining information that can have a positive impact on the epidemic and to propose specific methods for creating teams to conduct research with optimal public health impact.