Saturday, May 24, 2025
5/24/2025
Supporting Tobacco-Related Ongoing Education and Research (STRONGER) Scholar Program - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable and premature disease, disability, and death in the US and is often concentrated among marginalized and minoritized groups, resulting in myriad health inequities. Training a workforce to understand, conduct, and evaluate the rigor of addictions research is critical to expanding innovations in tobacco use prevention and treatment and enabling the rapid translation of evidence-based interventions in routine healthcare delivery, ultimately reducing tobacco-related health inequities. By leveraging extant NIDA investments and creating new courses and activities, the Supporting Tobacco-Related Ongoing Education and Research (STRONGER) Scholar Program will provide research and education experiences to prepare the next generation of clinician-scientists to address tobacco/nicotine addiction and its associated health inequities in research and practice. The STRONGER Scholar Program will provide research education in tobacco addiction science to medical students (7 Med Scholars x5 cohorts) and clinically-focused doctoral trainees (4 Grad Scholars x4 cohorts), matriculating a total of 51 Scholars with >50% identifying as members of racial or ethnic minoritized groups, women, and other groups who are underrepresented in the biomedical, behavioral, and social sciences. The STRONGER Scholar Program will build Scholars’ competencies in: 1) tobacco dependence treatment knowledge, 2) tobacco research knowledge and skills, with attention to health equity science; 3) resiliency for a research-inclusive career; and 4) responsible conduct of research through participation in a mentored research project and courses for skills development. The Specific Aims of the STRONGER Scholar Program are to: 1) identify, select, train, and mentor qualified trainees, resulting in an over-time increase in knowledge, skills, and interest in conducting tobacco addiction research; 2) increase scholars’ knowledge of tobacco/nicotine dependence and treatment through a competency-based curriculum, fostering skill development and interprofessional learning experiences; 3) systematically evaluate all aspects of the research education program using a mixed methods approach to enhance and strengthen the program iteratively over time; and 4) achieve >51 professional conference presentations and >51 peer-reviewed publications; disseminating information about the program, its research, and its scholars through social media outlets, a website, and health campaign messaging. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has no other NIDA-funded tobacco addiction science research and education programs. The program aligns with the institution’s strategic planning goals and its Scholars will benefit from the rich resources for scholarly and professional development at the nation’s #1 cancer center. The goal of the STRONGER Scholar program is to enhance clinically-focused trainees’ interest in, ability to be successful within, and – ultimately – pursuit of a research-inclusive career in tobacco addiction science.
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).