$275,000 Grants available under Accelerating the Pace of Drug Abuse Research Using Existing Data (US)

Deadline: 15-Nov-24

The National Institutes of Health is inviting applications proposing the innovative analysis of existing social science, behavioral, administrative, and neuroimaging data to study the etiology and epidemiology of drug using behaviors (defined as alcohol, tobacco, prescription and other drug) and related disorders, prevention of drug use and HIV, and health service utilization.

This FOA encourages the analyses of public use and other extant community-based or clinical datasets to their full potential in order to increase the knowledge of etiology, trajectories of drug using behaviors and their consequences including morbidity and mortality, risk and resilience in the development of psychopathology, strategies to guide the development, testing, implementation, and delivery of high quality, effective and efficient services for the prevention and treatment of drug abuse and HIV.

Specific Areas of Research Interest

Specific Areas of Research Interest include but are not limited to the following approaches or topic areas:

• Estimate the magnitude, impact, and risk of substance use and disorder in a population and provide direction for developing strategies to prevent or treat substance use and disorder, plan and evaluate substance use disorder services, and suggest new areas for basic, clinical, and treatment research;
• Describe, discriminate, and predict the complex nature and course of substance use and disorder, elucidate factors predicting substance use and disorder trajectories such as the impact of psychiatric comorbidity, environmental or contextual influences, or gene X environment interplay;
• Identify risk factors and consequences of substance use or use disorder associated with health disparate populations, such as those with high prevalence and/or intensity of use or who experience disparate outcomes from use (e.g., race/ethnicity, sex, sexual identity, age, disability, socioeconomic status, geographic location, comorbid mental health or substance use disorder diagnoses, individuals with physical disabilities, veterans/military, and criminal justice populations), analyses on these characteristics or other social determinants of health that affect development and could lead to interventions to ameliorate the impact. For more information on these topics, see NIDA’s Office of Diversity and Health Disparities
• Examine gender differences in the nature and extent of substance-using behaviors, in the pathways and determinants of initiation, progression and maintenance of alcohol and other substance use disorder, differential responsivity to preventive interventions, and in the utilization of substance use disorder treatment services. For more information on these topics, see NOT-OD-15-102 “Consideration of Sex as a Biological Variable in NIH-funded Research”;
• Characterize through model-based simulations or combinations of multiple data sources, the differential trajectories among groups of initiators and users, and structural, systemic, or individual-level barriers to implementation and utilization of prevention, treatment, and other life-saving services.
• Analyses of the organizational and system contexts that improve the accessibility, utilization, efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of prevention intervention, treatment implementation, and service delivery, including variation in factors such as organizational structure, manpower characteristics, training, policy context, shifting attitudes towards drug use, and drug availability;
• Identify factors to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, quality and utilization of treatment and prevention services for substance use disorder and related disorders (e.g. HIV) both in traditional substance treatment settings and in non-traditional settings such as criminal justice, schools, and primary care settings;
• Identifying factors to further understand substance use and HIV/AIDS pathogenesis and improve prevention services (including PrEP for high risk individuals), service delivery, testing and treatment for individuals living with HIV;
• Identify effective clinical shared decision-making factors in the prevention and treatment of substance use disorder and related disorders;
• Examine morbidity (e.g., disability status) and mortality (suicide and other causes of death) outcomes of substance use and disorder behaviors and potential mitigating interventions at the state and local level to improve public health impact;
• Understand how structural interventions, including policies at the federal, state, and local level influence initiation of use, progression to misuse, and/or addiction of substances such as cannabis, tobacco, prescription drugs, and other substances. Studies may consider unintended consequences of interventions and other health outcomes. Analysis of differential effects of these interventions on various health disparity groups (racial, ethnic, gender minorities) are encouraged.
• Analyses of individual developmental trajectories using brain, cognitive, emotional, academic, and/or other data, including examination of associations among measures of neurocognition, language use, brain structure and function.
• Identification of reliable biobehavioral signatures and/or cultural and familial factors that predict risk or resilience to substance use, mental illness, and other health outcomes.
• Analyses of neurobiological mechanisms underlying real-world complexities associated with substance use disorder (SUD) – e.g., polysubstance use, complex morbidity involving SUD and other neuropsychiatric disorders, transdiagnostic risk factors
• Development and application of whole-brain computational models that integrate multimodal data (e.g., structural imaging, fMRI, PET) towards understanding mechanisms underlying SUD and the impact of behavioral/pharmacological interventions
• Development of innovative analytical and/or visualization tools for complex datasets (e.g., large-scale longitudinal data; multimodal data including brain, behavior, and genetics)

Funding Information

• Award Budget: The combined budget for direct costs for the two-year project period may not exceed $275,000. No more than $200,000 may be requested in any single year.
• Award Project Period: The maximum period is 2 years.

Eligibility Criteria

• Higher Education Institutions
  • Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
  • Private Institutions of Higher Education
  • The following types of Higher Education Institutions are always encouraged to apply for NIH support as Public or Private Institutions of Higher Education:
    • Hispanic-serving Institutions
    • Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
    • Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs)
    • Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
    • Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)
• Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education
  • Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
  • Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
• For-Profit Organizations
  • Small Businesses
  • For-Profit Organizations (Other than Small Businesses)
• Local Governments
  • State Governments
  • County Governments
  • City or Township Governments
  • Special District Governments
  • Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Federally Recognized)
  • Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized)
• Federal Governments
  • Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government
  • U.S. Territory or Possession
• Other
  • Independent School Districts
  • Public Housing Authorities/Indian Housing Authorities
  • Native American Tribal Organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
  • Faith-based or Community-based Organizations
  • Regional Organizations
  • Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions)

For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=337324