Funding Opportunities to Address Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders
Special Emphasis Notice
Notice of Funding Opportunity Announcement
On Feb. 10, 2023, AHRQ released a NOFO for the Management of Substance Use Disorders in Primary Care and other Ambulatory Settings (R18). The proposed Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) announcement uses the R18 mechanism to support projects that develop and test strategies to improve the capacity of primary care and ambulatory settings to provide evidence-based, patient-centered care for people who misuse opioids and other substances. AHRQ is interested in projects that build on recent research on effective treatments and effective models of care and that lead to sustainable changes in how substance use disorder (SUD) care is delivered in primary care and/or develop lasting partnerships between primary care and other care settings. Applications are due April 14, 2023.
March 2021
AHRQ Announces Interest in Health Services Research to Address Substance Use Disorder Epidemic
Drug overdose deaths and morbidity from substance use disorder continue to risk despite the fall in opioid prescriptions and the increase in evidence-based screening and use of effective medications for opioid use disorder. In particular, polysubstance use and stimulant use disorders such as cocaine and methamphetamine have steadily increased over the past few years. The continuing rise in the number of patients with substance use disorder places a particular burden on clinicians in ambulatory care settings who need to manage patients' substance use disorder in the context of other chronic conditions. Furthermore, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fact that the root cases and contributors to substance use disorder have not been adequately addressed and have exacerbated existing disparities in substance use disorder screening and treatment.
The purpose of this Special Emphasis Notice (SEN) is to inform the research community that the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is interested in receiving health services research grant applications to advance our Nation's understanding of the substance use disorder crisis and provide solutions for addressing it.
In this SEN, AHRQ is interested in health services research to prevent, identify, and treat substance use disorders with a high degree of interest in applications that respond to the following three specific areas of focus:
- Dissemination and implementation of evidence-based, non-pharmacological, and behavioral interventions that can treat multiple substances or polysubstance use in ambulatory care and primary care settings, with a particular interest in substances for which pharmacological treatments are not available.
- Development and testing of healthcare services interventions in primary care and ambulatory care settings to address substance use disorder that consider the social, environmental, economic, and psychological factors that contribute to substance use disorder. Examples include care coordination, integration of substance use services in ambulatory care settings, or integration of population health approaches with primary care. Applications that take advantage of the natural experiment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to examine how changes in service delivery (such as expanded use of telehealth) affect access to care, quality of care, and health inequities are particularly welcome.
- Understanding and addressing the effect of substance use disorder on whole-person health and the development and/or management of other chronic conditions.
AHRQ is especially interested in health services research applications that address the following priorities:
- Reducing disparities for racial/ethnic minorities, children and adolescents, women, older adults, low-income communities, and rural populations.
- Addressing the needs of people with multiple chronic conditions and addressing substance use disorders in the context of whole-person health.
- Improving healthcare quality, health behaviors, shared decision making, and patient experiences.
The Agency encourages research teams to submit applications in response to this emphasis using AHRQ's standing R18, R03, and R01 funding mechanisms (PA-18-793, PA-18-794, PA-18-795). AHRQ also is interested in receiving career development awards (PA-20-067 and PA-17-232) that propose developing generalizable health service research skills through projects related to the substance use disorder crisis. Additionally, AHRQ has interest in receiving dissertation award grant proposals that relate to the substance use disorder crisis (PA-18-765).
Applicants should clearly state in their cover letter and project summary of their grant application that they are responding to this SEN by including the title and number of this SEN NOT-HS-21-010. Applications responding to this SEN should be submitted on regular application receipt dates identified in the respective Funding Opportunity Announcement and will be reviewed by AHRQ standing study sections. Applicants should consider this SEN active until March 15, 2023. This Opioids SEN supersedes the NOT-HS-18-015.
Please direct all inquiries to:
Sebastian Tong, MD, MPH
Funding opportunity for substance use disorder research around digital healthcare
AHRQ posted a funding announcement, "Using Innovative Digital Healthcare Solutions to Improve Quality at the Point of Care (R21/R33--Clinical Trial Optional)--PA-21-164." Although the announcement is not restricted to substance abuse disorder (SUD), there is a need for more research on how digital healthcare can improve patient outcomes related to SUD. For more information, contact DigitalHealthcareResearch@ahrq.hhs.gov.
