Sunday, May 11, 2025
5/11/2025
The Substance Misuse and Addiction Research Traineeship (SMART) - PROJECT SUMMARY Rapidly evolving substance misuse crises require a diverse workforce of highly trained substance misuse researchers. National and global solutions demand sustainable pipelines of elite investigators with a kaleidoscope of backgrounds, perspectives, and talents. Cultural homogeneity among investigators particularly impedes efforts to resolve challenges impacting underrepresented minority (URM) and disadvantaged communities, which often suffer harsher consequences from substance misuse epidemics. Despite some initiatives to promote diversity, certain groups remain grossly underrepresented in the field. Many URM and disadvantaged students –including women, LGBTQIAP+, individuals from low-income families, first generation college students, and persons with disabilities –face multidimensional historical and social factors that limits their access to the early enrichment, rigorous training, effective mentoring, nourishing environments and financial support necessary to become drug misuse scientists. Many promising students do not obtain research experience, are not introduced to a research career, and do not pursue a graduate degree. Among those that do pursue research careers, there is a publication and funding award disparity between traditional students versus URM, disadvantaged or first-generation college students. These disparities are due in part to training gaps that occur early in undergraduate matriculation. These gaps have domino effects throughout graduate school and throughout one’s career to adversely affect employment, tenure qualifications, and other aspects of academic life. The key to an inclusive, heterogeneous and highly skilled research community is to develop comprehensive initiatives that recruit, train, and cultivate bourgeoning URM and disadvantaged scholars early in their education. To enhance diversity in the next generation of substance misuse and addiction scientists, we propose a comprehensive recruitment and research education program that builds a trans-disciplinary substance misuse research traineeship for URM or disadvantaged undergraduates. The proposed program is entitled the University of South Florida Substance Misuse and Addiction Research Traineeship (SMART). The SMART specific aims are to: [SA1] Recruit gifted URM and disadvantaged undergraduates into SMART; [SA2] Train students in mixed research methods, scientific writing, grantsmanship, and professional practices; [SA3] Facilitate a mentored independent research experience; and [SA4] Disseminate research, best practices, and outcomes. SMART addresses limitations in the extant diversity programs through five pillars: systematic recruitment into research programs, early enrichment, rigorous training, effective mentoring, and nourishing environments. SMART specifically addresses NIH NIDA’s missions to enhance the training of a workforce to meet national and global research needs; encourage individuals from URM backgrounds to pursue careers in research; advance science on the causes of drug use; improve the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders; and advance the research on URM who experience disproportionate consequences.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).