Health Services and Economic Research on the Prevention and Treatment of Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco Abuse (R01, Clinical Trial Optional) | PA 18 569

Opportunity Information: Apply for PA 18 569

The Health Services and Economic Research on the Prevention and Treatment of Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco Abuse (R01, Clinical Trial Optional) opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number PA 18 569) is a National Institutes of Health discretionary grant program that supports R01 research projects focused on improving how prevention, treatment, and recovery support services for substance use and tobacco use are delivered. The core purpose is not to develop a single new clinical intervention in isolation, but to generate rigorous, practical evidence that helps systems, providers, and communities deliver higher-quality care more efficiently, with better outcomes and smarter use of resources. The FOA emphasizes health services research and economic research that can strengthen real-world service delivery across drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, from prevention through treatment and long-term recovery supports.

The announcement highlights several major research areas it wants to fund. One is clinical quality improvement, meaning studies that test ways to raise the standard of care in routine settings, such as improving screening, brief intervention, referral processes, retention in treatment, medication uptake and adherence, continuity of care, or patient safety and outcomes monitoring. Another is quality improvement in services organization and management, which leans more toward how programs and systems are structured and run, for example workflow redesign, staffing models, supervision approaches, performance measurement systems, care coordination strategies, or approaches that reduce wait times and improve access. A third area is implementation research, aimed at understanding and improving how evidence-based practices are adopted, delivered with fidelity, adapted appropriately to local context, and sustained over time in diverse service settings (clinics, schools, community organizations, justice settings, or integrated primary care, for instance). The FOA also calls out economic and cost studies, including cost analyses, cost-effectiveness, budget impact, and broader economic evaluations that help decision-makers understand what different service approaches cost, what benefits they produce, and what tradeoffs exist when scaling them. Finally, it explicitly welcomes work that advances the research toolkit itself, such as developing or improving methodologies, analytic approaches, and measurement instruments used to study prevention, treatment, and recovery support services. In practice, that could include new measures of service quality, patient-centered outcomes, implementation outcomes, equity metrics, or improved statistical and modeling approaches suited to complex service systems.

Because this is an R01 mechanism, the expectation is for well-powered, methodologically strong projects that can produce generalizable knowledge. The "clinical trial optional" designation means applicants may propose studies that include clinical trials if appropriate, but they are not required to do so. This flexibility supports a wide range of designs commonly used in health services research, such as pragmatic trials, cluster randomized designs, stepped-wedge rollouts, quasi-experimental evaluations, natural experiments, observational studies using administrative or claims data, mixed-methods implementation studies, and economic modeling, as long as the work is rigorous and aligned with the FOA goals.

Eligibility is broad, reflecting the FOA's interest in generating evidence that applies across many real-world contexts. Eligible applicants include state, county, and city governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (outside of higher education); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; and other entities. The FOA also specifically names additional eligible applicant types such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs), Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, U.S. territories or possessions, and even non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations). That wide eligibility is consistent with the service-delivery focus, since impactful health services research often requires partnerships across universities, health systems, community providers, public agencies, and tribal or territorial organizations.

The source information identifies the program as a grant under NIH, with activity categories listed as education and health, and CFDA numbers 93.273 and 93.279. The FOA record shows an original closing date of 2018-05-07 and a creation date of 2018-01-17, indicating when this specific announcement cycle was posted and when that cycle originally closed. The award ceiling and expected number of awards are not specified in the provided data, which typically means applicants would need to consult the full FOA text and NIH policy pages for budget guidance, project period norms, and any institute-specific funding considerations.

Overall, the opportunity is geared toward research that helps the field answer practical, high-stakes questions: how to deliver prevention and treatment services that work better in everyday settings, how to organize programs so evidence-based care becomes routine rather than exceptional, how to implement and sustain effective practices at scale, how to measure quality and outcomes more accurately, and how to understand the costs and economic impacts of different strategies. The through-line is improving service value: better outcomes and quality for patients and communities, delivered in ways that are feasible for organizations to maintain and that make efficient use of limited resources.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Health Services and Economic Research on the Prevention and Treatment of Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco Abuse (R01, Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.273, 93.279.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-01-17.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-05-07. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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