Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Research to Prevent Drug Use, Misuse and Addiction

Notice Number: NOT-DA-19-048

Key Dates
Release Date: July 11, 2019
First Available Due Date: October 5, 2019
Expiration Date: January 8, 2022

Related Announcements

PA-19-056: NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PA-19-055: NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Required)

PA-19-091: Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Required)

PA-19-052: NIH Small Research Grant Program (Parent R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PA-19-092: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)

PA-19-053: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PA-19-054: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Required)

Issued by
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Purpose

The purpose of this Notice is to inform potential applicants to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of special interest in research to: 1) develop and test strategies to prevent the initiation of substance use, progression to substance use disorders, and to prevent substance use-related conditions such as HIV; 2) develop and test processes or strategies to implement, scale and sustain evidence-based prevention in community, practice, and service systems, with an emphasis on settings that may be opportune given the prevalence of at-risk individuals; and, 3) develop methods to conduct prevention science.

Background

Drug use, misuse, and addiction interfere with the healthy functioning of individuals across the lifespan. Substance use is a preventable cause of numerous medical and societal problems, and often co-occurs with other behavioral health conditions. Both licit and illicit substance misuse are preceded by identifiable and modifiable bio-psycho-social and environmental factors that can originate as early as the prenatal period. There has been significant progress leading to the identification of modifiable risk and protective factors, as well as effective strategies to prevent substance use and substance use disorders, but challenges remain. Evidence based practices are not being broadly adapted and sustained, and emerging drug trends (e.g., the opioid epidemic, changing policies related to cannabis, vaping/e-cigarettes) present new challenges for the prevention research field and the practice of prevention. While actively addressing emerging public health threats, NIDA also maintains a focus on research to prevent polysubstance use, and research focused on the prevention of related substance use conditions, including HIV.

Research Objectives

NIDA is interested in prevention science research that spans efficacy, effectiveness and services research. Primary outcomes of interest include preventing initiation of substance use, misuse and progression to disorder, as well as prevention of drug related HIV infection. NIDA encourages intervention development work that articulates theoretical and conceptual models identifying and justifying the selection of intervention targets. Interventions may be developed and tested across a range of systems and settings (e.g., individual, family, education, justice, social service, healthcare, community), risk levels (universal, selective, indicated) and developmental periods. Investigators are strongly encouraged to consider the public or private organizations or systems that may, ultimately, support and sustain the intervention, developing interventions that are feasible for the setting and, where appropriate, in partnership with stakeholders and/or end users. The system(s) that will ultimately support this intervention should be considered at all phases of intervention development to avoid the development of interventions that are not sustainable outside of research settings or without research funds.

This NOSI encourages, but is not limited to, research applications in the following areas

  • Translational research that uses findings from epidemiology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and related fields to develop and test prevention interventions.
  • Efficacy and effectiveness research that examine impact on outcomes of initiation of drug use and progression from use to misuse, and tests moderators and mediators of prevention interventions that could enhance our understanding of mechanisms of action and inform tailoring and optimizing interventions for settings and populations.
  • Research to develop and test interventions and/or policies to prevent opioid and prescription drug misuse and opioid use disorder, particularly in settings that may be opportune for identifying and engaging at-risk individuals (e.g., justice, healthcare, employment settings).
  • Prevention services research that develops and tests strategies to implement and sustain, evidence-based prevention interventions in settings and systems, including research on systems-level scale-up of evidence-based programs, economic analysis of prevention strategies, and studies to improve engagement in and access to prevention interventions, particularly for high risk and underserved populations.
  • Prevention methodology research for designing, testing and optimizing prevention interventions and policies; Analytic models and statistical techniques for testing mediation and moderation in complex longitudinal designs and analyzing complex datasets.
  • Research that examines structural/environmental/policy approaches to prevention and/or multi-level/multi-system approaches to intervention.
  • Research that develops and tests interventions during high risk periods and transitions, including developmental transitions (e.g., transition to adulthood, transition out of foster care, job loss and housing instability, midlife/older adults) or targets interventions to high risk groups (e.g., individuals with psychiatric co-morbidity, justice or child welfare-involved populations).


Application and Submission Information:

This notice applies to due dates on or after October 5, 2019 and subsequent receipt dates through January 8, 2022.

Submit applications for this initiative using one of the following funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) or any reissues of these announcement through the expiration date of this notice.

  • PA-19-056, NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01, no CT allowed)
  • PA-19-055, NIH Research Project Grant (Parent CT R01, CT only allowed)
  • PA-19-091, NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)
  • PA-19-052, NIH Small Research Grant Program (Parent R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
  • PA-19-092, NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)
  • PA-19-053, NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
  • PA-19-054, NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Required)

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and the funding opportunity announcement used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:

  • For funding consideration, applicants must include "NOT-DA-19-048" (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B will not be considered for this initiative.

Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will be not be considered for the NOSI initiative.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Amy B. Goldstein, PhD
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Telephone: 301.827.4124
Email: amy.goldstein@nih.gov