DESPR Research Centers’ Information | National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

The Division of Epidemiology, Services, and Prevention Research (DESPR) funds a variety of P30 and P50 Centers to bring together investigators currently funded by NIH or other Federal or non-Federal sources to enhance the effectiveness of existing research. These Centers are national community resources for furthering drug addiction research by sharing their findings, data, and resources for researchers to use and build upon and to advance research in this field. Below is a listing of our currently funded Centers that describes their research aims, training opportunities and resources. If you’re interested in any Center(s), we encourage you to reach out for collaboration and/or utilize their resources.

DESPR Research Centers

Brandeis-Harvard SPIRE Center for SUD Systems Performance Improvement – Research and Engagement

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Sharon Reif, Dr. Haiden Huskamp (Dr. Constance Horgan, previous)
Institution: Brandeis University
Center webpage link: https://heller.brandeis.edu/nida-center/
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/EplXp6IY-UGTKV9-tfiWWg/project-details/9689954

Research Aims:

The Brandeis-Harvard SPIRE Center for SUD Systems Performance Improvement – Research and Engagement fills a critical public health need to better understand how to improve performance of the delivery system for treatment of substance use disorders (SUD). The Center brings together the collective expertise of researchers from Brandeis and Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy, using research on payment methods and service delivery organization to synergistically expand the research base, ensure SUD treatment services are included in efforts to improve quality and reduce cost of health care services, and inform policy decisions that will profoundly affect the cost, quality and availability of SUD treatment services. The intertwined nature of delivery and payment systems requires attention to both in order to achieve sustainability of high value systems innovations. While continuing to emphasize innovations in delivery and payment systems broadly defined, the Center brings intentional focus to low-barrier settings for treatment (i.e., wholly outside of or extensions of specialty SUD settings such as emergency departments, pharmacies, and telehealth), as well as quality improvement, inequities in the provision and financing of services, and factors that influence sustainability of innovation. The Center also expands the science around Medicaid managed care, given the importance of Medicaid as a payer of SUD services, and the dominant role of private Medicaid health plans.

Center Aims Include:

Advance the science: Stimulating research, learning, and experimentation on payment and delivery system reforms for substance use disorder treatment;
Drive the next generation of research: Training and mentoring a racially/ethnically diverse pool of early career investigators and creating networks of early career and senior researchers;
Engage with key stakeholders in a bidirectional exchange to produce timely and relevant research that informs and influences policy and practice; and
Translate and disseminate findings to an expansive audience of policy makers, payers, providers, persons with lived experience of SUD, and researchers to inform the changing environment of delivery and payment of SUD treatment services.

Center for Dissemination and Implementation at Stanford (C-DIAS)

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Mark McGovern
Institution: Stanford University
Center webpage link: https://med.stanford.edu/cdi/c-dias
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/DQAHhu50-UG-VgCakRGIOg/project-details/10493956

Research Aims:

The overarching goal of C-DIAS is equitable access to evidence-based addiction treatments. C-DIAS leadership brings the best of current approaches to dissemination and implementation science in measures, methods, design, modeling, health economics, and policy translation. The Center aims to improve dissemination and implementation science in addiction by reducing variation and increasing standardization in methods and measures, translating and harmonizing data across studies, and using agent-based and economic modeling to scientifically respond to substance-related epidemics and health care disparities. Expert capacity is built through offering a multi-component Mentored Training Program and open access online resources and tools.

The Center Aims to:

Prepare the addiction treatment services research community for advanced dissemination and implementation research by developing human capital, building expert capacity, and serving as a national resource;
Implement increasingly standardized measures and methods, examine the causal mechanisms of implementation strategies, harmonize data across studies, and use modeling techniques to advance dissemination and implementation science in addiction treatment services research; and
Sustain and scale-up equitable evidence-based addiction treatment services in public and private health systems by providing decision-makers with information on how to effectively and efficiently evidence-based

Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research

Principal Investigator(s): Holly Hagan
Institution: New York University
Center webpage link: http://www.cduhr.org/
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/xsvPkvP2ukq5WZWmBlj99Q/project-details/9197847

Research Aims:

The mission of CDUHR is to end the HIV and HCV epidemics in populations who use drugs and their communities by conducting transdisciplinary research and disseminating its findings to inform programmatic, policy, and grass roots initiatives at the local, state, national and global levels. The Center’s theme is focused on reinvigorating HIV prevention and care for people who use drugs, accelerating progress and sustaining gains in the midst of societal disruption. CDUHR accomplishes its mission through an infrastructure created to develop and enhance research with the following objectives:

Contribute to knowledge about HIV and HCV epidemics, understanding how large-scale societal disruption may undermine HIV prevention and treatment;
Develop, implement and evaluate interventions that have an impact on people who use drugs;
Disseminate findings through multiple venues to inform evidence-based practices and policies; and
Train new researchers across scientific disciplines, especially members of traditionally underrepresented groups.

CDUHR aims to serve as a national resource to HIV and substance use researchers, service providers, policymakers, and communities, supporting them to contribute to ending the HIV epidemic. CDUHR has a long record of high productivity and transformative science related to HIV in people who use drugs. The Center offers seminars by leading scientists covering topics related to the epidemiology, natural history, prevention, and treatment of substance use disorders and their consequences; presentations on statistical and research methods; grant development workshops for new and early-stage investigators; and consultation on research and methods related to HIV/HCV and substance use. The Center has offered a series of research-to-implementation briefs that inform non-scientific audiences on topics related to HIV, HCV and substance use, as well as fact sheets providing summaries of recent research findings by affiliated investigators for non-scientific audiences.

Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorder, HCV, and HIV (CHERISH)

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Bruce Schackman
Institution: Weill Cornell Medicine
Center webpage link: https://cherishresearch.org/
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/bV1TWUqRQUu91gt4qb3WQw/project-details/9692581

Research Aims:

The mission of CHERISH is to develop and disseminate health economic research on healthcare utilization, health outcomes, and health-related behaviors that informs substance use disorder treatment policy and HCV and HIV care of people who use substances. To increase impact of this research, CHERISH supports research conducted at the individual, system, and community levels. The Center is a collaboration among Weill Cornell Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston University School of Public Health, the University of Pennsylvania Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and the University of Miami Miller school of Medicine.

As a multi-institutional center, CHERISH leverages outstanding researchers with synergistic areas of expertise including health economics, health services research, addiction medicine, clinical research, simulation modeling, and dissemination science. CHERISH is a national resource to researchers interested in these topics, offers training and mentorship opportunities, and provides pilot funding for junior researchers and researchers new to substance use, health economics, or simulation modeling methods.

Center for Methodologies for Adapting and Personalizing Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services for SUD and HIV (MAPS) /d3Center – Data Science for Dynamic Intervention Decision-Making Center

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Billie Nahum-Shani, Dr. Susan Murphy, Dr. Linda Collins, Dr. Daniel Almirall
Institution: University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
Center webpage link: https://d3c.isr.umich.edu/
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/jWzMqc7SN0KCxUyGDoAVIQ/project-details/10473747

Research Aims:

The mission of the MAPS Center is to develop and disseminate innovative research methods for improving the science and practice of personalized, technology-assisted services for individuals with or at risk for substance use disorders (SUD) or HIV. The Center is dedicated to working with a diverse range of community and academic partners, including researchers, practitioners, and policy makers, to identify and address the challenges and opportunities involved in adapting interventions to an individual’s changing needs, strengths and circumstances. This work is guided by a commitment to building evidence-based, effective and resource-efficient interventions and implementation strategies to combat SUD and/or HIV. The specific aims of the MAPS Center are to develop novel experimental and data analytic methods to optimize the adaptation of SUD/HIV services across different levels, modalities, and time scales; to serve as a national resource by placing the innovative methods developed by the MAPS Center into the hands of SUD/HIV scientists; and to nurture and build capacity among scientists to design experiments and analyze data to inform the development of adaptive services.

The MAPS Center is housed within the University of Michigan’s Data-Science for Dynamic Intervention Decision-Making Center (d3c). The d3c is a group of data scientists from various disciplines, including statistics, psychology, information science, and computer science. The Center’s researchers use data, and in particular randomized trial designs, to learn how to best design intervention plans for individuals struggling with a variety of health disorders and those in education intervention settings. In many settings, clinicians, education practitioners, or other stakeholders often do not know how to create the ideal intervention plan, that is, one that leads to improved outcomes for the greatest numbers of individuals. The Center uses data science tools to discover and design the best possible intervention plans.

Center for the Study of Adolescent Risk and Resilience

Principal Investigator(s): Rick Hoyle
Institution: Duke University
Center webpage link: https://c-starr.org/
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/B4FsOPwcmky9dL42V21rdQ/project-details/10434029#details

Research Aims:

The Center for the Study of Adolescent Risk and Resilience (C-StARR) at Duke University supports innovative interdisciplinary research on self-regulation and drug use in late adolescence and early adulthood. C-StARR is enhancing the sampling, measurement, methods, and analyses of ongoing studies of adolescent self-regulation and substance use and testing novel hypotheses about the interplay of self-regulation and adolescent substance use and abuse. Support staff and senior scientists are contributing to the training of the next generation of addiction scientists by including early-career faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students in multidisciplinary research teams. Center cores are ensuring collaboration and synergy, that innovative approaches to acquiring and analyzing data are used to reflect important features of the contexts in which adolescents and young adults make decisions and behave, that biomarkers and other biological data are added to ongoing and pilot research studies by C-StARR project teams, and that teams of investigators are multidisciplinary including senior- and early-career scientists as well as pre- and postdoctoral trainees. C-StARR serves as a national resource for prevention scientists, intervention specialists, and policy makers. C-StARR supports a thriving intellectual community that includes two dozen faculty members from nine academic departments at Duke, ranging from neuroscience and genetics to economics and public policy.

Prevention Research Center: Parenting Among Women Who are Opioid Users

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Leslie Leve
Institution: University of Oregon
Center webpage link: https://psi.uoregon.edu/center-parenting-and-opioids
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/diz02mfqgUmXeqinxRTZLA/project-details/10472797

Research Aims:

The United States is experiencing an opioid epidemic of historic significance. National-level epidemiological data indicate that the rates opioid misuse, addiction, overdose, and fatalities are increasing at a particularly fast rate among women, and among individuals in child- bearing and child-rearing age groups. Opioid-using behaviors among women who are parenting can have significant detrimental effects on their parenting, parent-child relationships, and downstream effects on child brain development, health, and subsequent risk for drug use. The overall goal of the Prevention Research Center: Parenting Among Women Who Are Opioid Users (PWO Center) is to improve the well-being of individuals, families, and communities affected by the opioid crisis through a focus on behavioral (parental responsivity, warmth) and neurocognitive systems (e.g., executive functioning, reward responsiveness) that are underlying mechanisms common to both addiction issues and parenting challenges. The Center's Research Projects and Cores are based upon a unifying conceptual model and employ a translational science approach in which basic science investigations of underlying mechanisms are leveraged in the development and evaluation of scalable interventions that are designed to deliver population-level impacts on policy and practice.

The Center is a collaborative effort between the University of Oregon and Oregon Health & Science University to improve the well-being of individuals, families, and communities affected by the opioid crisis. Within the University of Oregon, researchers from the Prevention Science Institute (PSI), Center for Translational Neuroscience (CTN), and Oregon’s Data Science Initiative, make up the multi-disciplinary team. The Center has strong support from the state governor, community partners, and university leadership. The anticipated long-term, public health outcomes of the Center are to improve evidence- based prevention of substance abuse, reduce maternal opioid misuse and addiction, reduce intergenerational transmission of drug addiction, increase scientific understanding and public awareness of how opioids impact maternal parenting practices via underlying behavioral and neurocognitive mechanisms, ready the next generation of researchers and practitioners in this area, and increase evidence-based policy.

RAND-USC Schaeffer Opioid Policy Tools and Information Center (OPTIC

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Bradley Stein, Dr. Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Dr. Beth Ann Griffin
Institution: RAND Corporation
Center webpage link: https://www.rand.org/health-care/centers/optic.html
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/NHZjiECq0k2eNhzgq4D_jA/project-details/9757735

Research Aims:

OPTIC’s mission is to be a national resource, fostering innovative research to confront the opioid-related public health crisis that continues to batter the nation and disseminating methods, tools, and information to the research community, policymakers, health service providers, and other community stakeholders. As part of these efforts, OPTIC collaborates with opioid policy researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine and Public Health, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, University of Oregon, University of Victoria, Network of Public Health Law, UCLA, Northwestern, University of North Carolina, Temple University, and Vanderbilt University.

The opioid crisis continues to evolve, and policymakers continue to seek information about effective and innovative approaches to address the crisis. It is increasingly a polysubstance crisis involving synthetic opioids, its effects and responses have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and structural inequalities and systemic racism have exacerbated the burden for certain populations. OPTIC’s multi-institutional team brings specialized knowledge of opioid outcome datasets, policies, and methods to meet the challenge of this dynamic crisis with speed and methodological accuracy. The Center seeks to identify targeted policies and broad strategies that can reduce opioid related harms in both the short and long term.

The Center also seeks to develop, improve, and disseminate tools, data, and methods the research community needs to conduct opioid policy research more quickly, accurately, and efficiently and to share what we learn quickly with research colleagues, decisionmakers, and practitioners at multiple levels. The Center develops public goods including data repositories, simulation tools, and specialized products to increase the speed with which the substance use disorder research field can address the new challenges it faces.

DESPR NIH HEAL Initiative® Research Centers

The Division of Epidemiology, Services, and Prevention Research (DESPR) collaborates with The Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative®, to support a variety of Centers to enhance the effectiveness of NIH HEAL Initiative research programs. These Centers often create findings, data, and resources that are beneficial for the broader pain and addiction research community. Below is a listing of our currently funded Centers that describes their research aims, training opportunities and resources. If you’re interested in any Center(s), we encourage you to reach out for collaboration and/or utilize their resources.

HEAL Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN)

JCOIN Coordination and Translation Center

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Faye Taxman, Dr. Todd Molfenter, Dr. Warren Ferguson, Dr. Judith Wilde, Dr. Danielle Rudes
Institution: George Mason University
Center webpage link: https://www.jcoinctc.org/
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/ck5HEQCH4EScH_BZy8oW9Q/project-details/9882828

Research Aims:

The nationwide Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) connects investigators who collaborate with justice and behavioral-health partners to study and disseminate evidence-informed approaches to ensure quality care is provided to individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) in justice settings. The Vision is that every justice-involved individual with a substance use disorder should have timely access to evidence-based practices and treatment(s), whether the individual is detained or residing in the community. JCOIN is a groundbreaking initiative designed to advance scientific knowledge on effective policies, practices, and interventions, and to expand their use in daily practice within health and justice settings. NIDA awarded JCOIN grants to 13 clinical research centers (“Research Hubs”).

The JCOIN Coordination and Translation Center (CTC) is a cooperative of eight organizations that conduct research, engage stakeholders, disseminate findings, and provide support and infrastructure to the Network. George Mason University works in Collaboration with the University of Wisconsin, the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and Sam Houston State University. The CTC facilitates communication across internal and external stakeholders, conducts rapid response and pilot research to support innovative studies, creates a participatory research partnership with stakeholder groups, educates and mentors researchers and practitioners to expand knowledge and skills, and executes studies to test dissemination and implementation strategies to understand mechanisms that impact the effectiveness of messages and materials used with various audiences. The CTC aims include:

Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration with 26 national associations which sit on Practitioner and Stakeholder Boards;
Dissemination to Reduce the Translational Gap to justice and health organizations;
Implementation to Reduce the Translational Gap including studies to address implementation issues; and
Expansion of Outreach, Capacity Building, and Opportunities to develop the workforce and to develop justice and health environments to better serve individuals impacted by the justice system.

Together with the JCOIN Methodology and Advanced Analytics Center (MAARC), the CTC engages with justice settings and treatment providers in research studies to address the opioid crisis and disseminate findings to stakeholders across the country.

JCOIN Methodology and Advanced Analytics Center

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. John Schneider, Dr. Harold Pollack
Institution: University of Chicago
Center webpage link: https://www.norc.org/Research/Projects/Pages/justice-community-opioid-innovation-network-.aspx
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/U08toR39ikaV6q8QHtLsTg/project-details/9882805

Research Aims:

The JCOIN Methodology and Advanced Analytics Center (MAARC) has several core functions related to advanced data management and analysis (e.g., Data Commons), rapid national population-based and geospatially informed survey and policy analysis, mathematical and network modeling, and innovations in primary data collection from most impacted communities, service providers and other justice stakeholders. In addition, support services around geospatial analyses and tools and development of core measures are products that have been developed by the Center.

HEAL Data2Action

HEAL Data2Action Research Adoption Support Center

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Mark McGovern, Dr. Sara Becker, Dr. William Becker, Dr. C Hendricks Brown
Institution: Stanford University
Center webpage link: TBD/newly awarded
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/TewI718lZ0qe9g70SFtjgg/project-details/10596435

Research Aims:

The HEAL Data2Action Research Adoption Support Center (RASC) aims to stem the tide of overdose death by leading a scientifically driven support endeavor to effectively translate evidence-based interventions for substance use disorders and pain. The RASC will support HEAL Data2Action Innovation Projects, in collaboration with a Modeling and Economic Resource Center (MERC) and a Data Infrastructure Support Center (DISC). The Innovation Projects will leverage local data to identify and implement evidence-based interventions for pain management and OUD treatment and monitor impact. The RASC will optimize and elevate the dissemination and implementation capability of the overall HD2A program.

The Center Aims to:

Assess the Innovation Projects’ dissemination and implementation capability, conduct a formative evaluation of the overall HD2A program, and perform rapid turnaround research projects addressing translational barriers identified by the Innovation Projects
Assist the Innovation Projects by a dissemination and implementation capability assessment to enhance dissemination and implementation efforts, create an Implementation Support plan and offer on-demand technical assistance, organize a learning collaborative, and design and maintain online tools and resources for evidence-based practice in pain management and OUD treatment
Advance the exponential impact of the Innovation Projects by combining and harmonizing dissemination and implementation data across projects for greater comparability, generalizability, and modeling; synergizing influence with expanding networks of collaborations, conferences, publications, and online resources; and leveraging research and stakeholder social capital for scientifically informed policies and financing that ensure sustainable and equitable access to proven interventions.

HEAL Data2Action Modeling and Economics Resource Center

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Bruce Schackman, Dr. Kathryn McCollister, Dr. Benjamin Linas
Institution: Weill Cornell Medicine
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/9xd2jjRAv061yiLlH9WdqA/project-details/10590443

Research Aims:

The HD2A Modeling and Economic Resource Center (MERC) provides expertise and consultation on simulation modeling and economic evaluation methods to support the HD2A Innovation Projects. The MERC hosts a consultation service that supports the selection and use of research methods, including economic evaluation, cost analysis, simulation modeling, advanced econometric analysis, and behavioral economics. The MERC also provides online training resources, methods resources for assessing economic benefits, systematic reviews of costs and cost-effectiveness of evidence-based practices, program cost assessment tools, individual-level cost assessment questionnaires, budget impact tools, and costing tools to inform payment design. MERC investigators are conducting a comparative and meta- modeling research project and an innovative payment design research project focused on peer support services.

HEAL Data2Action Data Infrastructure Support Center

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Meredith Adams
Institution: Wake Forest University
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/HPCxGROjvU-vCFYHY3P12g/project-details/10587594

Research Aims:

The HD2A Data Infrastructure Support Center (DISC) will offer clinical and informatics knowledge to provide centralized support, resources, and data-related coordination for the HD2A Innovation Projects. The DISC will assist Innovation Projects with navigating electronic health records and other “big data” sources, as well as logistical processes such as data use agreements and linkage algorithms, attending to privacy and ethics. DISC investigators will assist with data collection planning and outcome assessment, as well as data visualization efforts to facilitate stakeholder engagement and intervention planning.

Courses, seminars, conferences, trainings, and on-demand technical assistance will serve as key support mechanisms. A Rapid Data Infrastructure Modernization Support research program will be facilitated, offering catalyst awards and rapid cycle funding for Innovation Projects to help address opportunities and challenges related to data infrastructure, acquisition, and visualization.

HEAL Integrative Management of Chronic Pain and OUD for Whole Recovery (IMPOWER)

IMPOWR Dissemination Education and Coordination Center (IDEA-CC)

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Meredith Adams
Institution: Wake Forest University
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/FIl8nSmVaEWtWoXY-BoJ7g/project-details/10491953

Research Aims:

The IMPOWR Dissemination, Education, and Coordination Center (IDEA-CC) will develop a chronic pain and opioid use disorder (OUD) -focused infrastructure support to amplify and create momentum for the findings of the IMPOWR and other linked research networks focused on integrating management of chronic pain and OUD for whole recovery. IDEA-CC will develop the infrastructure for the IMPOWR network through several key domains: 1) rapidly deploy a communication framework to link IMPOWR clinical sites with each other and the larger HEAL research framework; 2) develop an educational infrastructure addressing stigma and health disparities in patients with co-morbid CP and OUD; and 3) effectively disseminate research findings to targeted audiences. Understanding the relationship between co-morbid chronic pain and OUD is critical to designing the most effective interventions. The objective of the IDEA-CC is to create a research community that connects IMPOWR centers to translate findings and develop a key chronic pain -OUD research and education infrastructure. Improving co- morbid chronic pain and OUD treatment will involve integrated clinical approaches and a fundamental shift in healthcare providers are educated. Objectives will be achieved through several aims:

Harmonize processes for data collection and common data elements of chronic pain and OUD measures across the IMPOWR research center, providing a coordinated platform for gathering data from these
Bidirectionally disseminate information regarding network research and data sharing opportunities to the larger scientific community and community partners in the fields of pain, addiction, and mental
Support IMPOWR network development and the validation of key instruments/measures of composite chronic pain and OUD measures.
Develop an educational infrastructure that addresses stigma and health disparities for co- morbid chronic pain and OUD.

The Wake Forest IDEA-CC will create a shared research platform to amplify and accelerate investigations at the interface of chronic and OUD. This research will support NIDA's goal to enhance the clinical impact of existing treatments at the critical intersection of OUD and chronic pain conditions, while actively working to destigmatize treatment in a way that promotes health equity.

HEAL Harm Reduction Research Network (HRRN)

RTI HEAL Harm Reduction Research Network Coordination Center

Principal Investigator(s): Emmanuel Oga, Jessica Cance
Institution: Research Triangle Institute
Center webpage link: https://www.rti.org/impact/opioid-research-and-the-nih-heal-initiative
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/cHt6qoUfE0muNI4NXGz9OA/project-details/10587698

Research Aims:

The mission of the RTI Harm Reduction Research Network (HRRN) Coordination Center is to support HRRN research projects that aim to improve the understanding of the effectiveness and outcomes of implementation of harm reduction strategies. RTI provides scientific, administrative, and logistical support for the HRRN to facilitate network coordination and communication. Recognizing the importance of data harmonization for harm reduction research, RTI is facilitating a stakeholder-engaged process of developing common metrics and measures to support HEAL data harmonization, data infrastructure and sharing, and providing methodology consultations. Given the importance of involving stakeholder voices to adequately identify the problems faced by specific populations and serve them with evidence-based solutions, RTI is facilitating conceptually driven engagement of stakeholders representing individuals and communities at highest risk for harms associated with drug use. To accelerate the translation of research findings into practice, RTI is establishing a research infrastructure that facilitates the timely development and dissemination of translational products, including effective dissemination strategies through user-centered design. The RTI team of leaders, investigators, and scientific advisors bring significant expertise in harm reduction, data harmonization, statistical methodology, data infrastructure development and management, and implementation science. RTI is leveraging its extensive experience in coordination and expertise in substance use research, harm reduction, and community engagement to implement a portfolio of scientific and support activities for the network. The RTI CC is providing a robust central operation to coordinate a comprehensive multiproject, multipronged research endeavor that demonstrates an understanding of the methodological complexities of integrating evidence from multiple sources with diverse populations and outcomes.

HEAL Recovery Research Networks

Consortium on Addiction Recovery Science (CoARS) Infrastructure

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Aaron Hogue
Institution: Partnership to End Addiction
Webpage link: https://www.recoveryanswers.org/coars/
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/WpN8XwlZk0W2Z2E4Wu2lKA/project-details/10535154

Research Aims:

The Partnership to End Addiction serves as an infrastructure hub for the Consortium on Addiction Recovery Science (CoARS). CoARS is a partnership of 11 research teams that are invested in increasing understanding of recovery support services through studies that test the effectiveness of recovery support services; research networking; training and mentoring of students and early career scientists; and building community partnerships. The core infrastructure for the Consortium is supported through an R24 rather than a Center mechanism but is similarly dedicated to accelerating science on recovery support services for substance use disorders with science, lived experience, and issuance of community program resources as a foundation. Activities include a national meeting focused on addiction recovery support research; strategies to sustain collaborative activities; facilitation of cross-consortium training, mentoring, and peer learning; development of toolkits to enhance engagement of persons with lived experience as researchers and partners; increasing racial and ethnic diversity and addressing disparities in recovery supports; and harmonizing recovery support measures and data sources across Consortium projects.

HEAL Prevention Collaborative

HEAL Prevention Collaborative Coordinating Center

Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Phillip Graham
Institution: Research Triangle Institute
Webpage link: https://www.rti.org/impact/opioid-research-and-the-nih-heal-initiative
Project Details from NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9891612

Research Aims:

The NIH HEAL Prevention Cooperative (HPC) supports the development and dissemination of strategies to prevent opioid misuse and opioid use disorder (OUD) among this population. The HPC consists of 10 research projects that are working to test preventive intervention strategies through individual and coordinated approaches. The purpose is to enhance knowledge related to opioid misuse and OUD prevention among adolescents and young adults between the ages of 15 and 30. The NIH HEAL Prevention Coordinating Center (HPCC) at RTI supports individual HPC research projects and works to generate shared insights by collecting, analyzing, and reporting data across projects. The individual HPC opioid use research projects will provide a subset of common study data elements to the HPCC. In turn, the HPCC will prepare the collective HPC data sets and supporting documentation for an NIH-identified data repository to make the data sets available for secondary data analysis. The HPCC conducts opioid misuse prevention research activities under five specific aims:

Facilitate HPC coordination and communication, including the dissemination of systematic reviews and other scholarly works.
Provide implementation science consultation and facilitate implementation research that spans HPC research projects.
Establish data infrastructure.
Provide data harmonization as well as methodological and statistical consultation; lead and facilitate cross-project investigations on etiology and prevention of opioid misuse and disorder.
Support economic evaluation across research projects.

March 23, 2023