The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is the lead federal agency supporting scientific research on drug use and addiction and was established as an Institute within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Reorganization Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-321).
NIDA’s organizational structure comprises the Office of the NIDA Director, the Office of Management, the Office of Science Policy and Communications, the Intramural Research Program, the Division of Extramural Research, and three extramural funding divisions: the Division of Neuroscience and Behavior; the Division of Therapeutics and Medical Consequences; and the Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research. NIDA is also home to the Center for Clinical Trials Network, which manages the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network; the Office of Translational Initiatives and Program Innovations, which provides leadership to speed the translation of research discoveries into health applications; and the HIV Research Program, which is responsible for developing, planning, and coordinating high-priority research at the intersection of HIV, substance use, and SUDs. Through a wide range of programs, workshops, and funding mechanisms, the Office of Research Training, Diversity, and Disparities supports researchers at multiple stages of their careers, aims to enhance the diversity of the addiction science workforce, and promotes research to address health inequities.
Through grants and contracts awarded to investigators at research institutions around the country and overseas, as well as through its Intramural Research Program, NIDA addresses the most fundamental and essential questions about substance use. This includes detecting and responding to emerging substance use trends, understanding how drugs work in the brain and body, identifying social determinants of substance use risk and SUDs, and developing and testing new approaches to prevention, treatment, and recovery.