CoARS Administrative Supplement

ABSTRACT The specific aims of this proposal are to establish a coordinated infrastructure and research agenda for the Consortium on Addiction Recovery Science (CoARS). These aims directly supplement the aims of the parent grant award (R24DA051946-02). The parent grant was funded via NIDA's groundbreaking FOA (RFA-DA-20-

014) that sought to develop multi-stakeholder networks to advance the development of effectiveness research on specific types of RSS, especially for individuals taking medications for opioid use disorder. NIDA awarded five of these R24 grants, each focused on specific types of RSS for addiction. After being funded, these five

independent teams connected and decided to initiate an informal effort to optimize their collective expertise and resources. This created CoARS, which has operated for one year in the funding margins of each R24. This Administrative Supplement will provide direct funding and programmatic momentum to CoARS. The current

CoARS mission is to accelerate science on recovery support services for opioid and other substance use disorders by building an infrastructure based on scientific, lived experience, and community program expertise and resources. It is now timely and essential to establish a formal infrastructure through this supplement in

order to fully leverage the diverse resources and expertise of CoARS in order to maximize its collective research productivity, diversity and equity profile, and sustainability as a national leader in the science of addiction RSS. Supplemental Aim 1 consolidates the nascent CoARS infrastructure via protected time for

R24 scientists, coordination of the varied research and training efforts across the R24s, and creation of communication and dissemination channels for R24 activities; underwriting the first national meetings on addiction RSS science; and mapping pathways for CoARS sustainability. Supplemental Aim 2 supports

CoARS primary research initiatives. While each R24 included some aspect of research training, CoARS will marshall cross-R24 training and peer learning to foster interaction among trainees at all stages (undergrad through early career scientists) and professoinal identity (including community members). We also will create

toolkits to guide researchers in engaging more persons with lived experiences—e.g., in recovery, caregiving for a person using substances and/or in recovery, justice involvement—in RSS research and training activities, focusing on adapting techniques of community-based participatory research and research-practice partnership

for RSS contexts. We will also adopt the NIMHD Minority Health & Health Disparities Research Framework, which focuses on groups with disparities in addiction and related areas and provides a structure to facilitate analysis of the CoARS research portfolio to assess progress and opportunities, as well as harmonize research

methods and data sources across the five R24 grants in concert with HEAL Data Ecoystems guidelines.