The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently announced its plans to create a new Institute focusing on substance use, abuse, and addiction research and related public health initiatives. This Institute would integrate the relevant research portfolios from NIDA, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and other NIH Institutes and Centers. NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins said in a statement that “the formation of a single, new Institute devoted to such research makes scientific sense and would enhance NIH’s efforts to address the substance abuse and addiction problems that take such a terrible toll on our society.”
A new task force of experts from within NIH will look carefully across all of NIH’s 27 Institutes and Centers to determine where substance use, abuse, and addiction research programs currently exist and make recommendations about what programs should be moved into the proposed new Institute. In the interim, all existing substance use, abuse, and addiction research programs at NIH will continue as they are.