HEAL Initiative Research Program (HIRP)

About the HEAL Initiative

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative®, was launched in 2018 with Congressional support to accelerate scientific solutions to address the national opioid overdose public health emergency. The initiative is managed by both the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which leads opioid use disorder and overdose research efforts, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), which leads research efforts to develop safe and effective therapies for acute and chronic pain.

What We Do

The NIDA HEAL Initiative Research Program (HIRP) supports the development, planning, and coordination of HEAL programs funded by NIDA. The HIRP also collaborates closely with NINDS to comanage cross-cutting programs and other initiative-wide activities. 

HEAL Initiative Research Priorities

Because the NIH HEAL Initiative was launched to address a public health emergency, research priorities focus on efforts that provide evidence-based, tailored solutions to address urgent unmet needs in the prevention and treatment of opioid misuse, opioid and stimulant use disorder, polysubstance use, overdose, and unmanaged acute and chronic pain. While NIDA supports research in all of these domains, HEAL research priorities focus more on research efforts that can be rapidly translated to stem the ongoing crisis. The following resources were developed to guide the HEAL Initiative’s research program over the next five years:

Funding Resources

Resources

Staff:

Michele Rankin, Ph.D. – Director
Aminul Islam, Ph.D., PMP – Health Scientist Administrator
Rachel Kelley, Ph.D., RD – Scientific Program Analyst
Poorti Khosla – Staff Assistant