Special Considerations for NIDA Funding Opportunities and Awards

If your recipient institution wishes to do a press release or is planning media outreach around your Notice of Award (NOA), please closely coordinate with the NIDA Press Office, which can be reached at media@nida.nih.gov. Please note that NIDA and NIH do not publicly discuss any funding or grant until it has been officially posted in NIH RePORTER, which is updated on a weekly basis. We therefore advise that recipients hold all public statements announcing your award (on social media, websites, through the press, etc.) until that time. 

In order to most effectively disseminate research results, advance notice should be given to NIDA that research findings are about to be published so that we may coordinate accurate and timely release to the media, by emailing the NIDA press office at media@nida.nih.gov.This information will be embargoed until the publication date. Any press materials issued by the recipient institution must also adhere to the Acknowledgment of Federal Funding Requirement (as specified in the NIH Grants Policy Statement).

The National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (NACDA) recognizes the importance of research involving the administration of drugs with abuse potential, and dependence or addiction liability, to human subjects. Potential applicants are encouraged to obtain and review these recommendations of Council before submitting an application that will administer compounds to human subjects. The guidelines are available here - NACDA Guidelines for Administration of Drugs to Human Subjects.

The National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (NACDA) encourages NIDA and its grantees to consider the points it has set forth with regard to existing or prospective sponsored research agreements with tobacco companies or their related entities and the impact of acceptance of tobacco industry funding on NIDA's credibility and reputation within the scientific community. Please see Points to Consider Regarding Tobacco Industry Funding of NIDA Applicants

 NIDA strongly encourages investigators involved in human-subjects studies to employ a common set of tools and resources that will promote the collection of comparable data across studies and to do so by incorporating the measures from the Core and Specialty collections, which are available in the Substance Abuse and Addiction Collection of the PhenX Toolkit (www.phenxtoolkit.org). Please see NOT-DA-12-008 for further details.

Applications proposing research on cannabis or its main psychotropic constituent delta-9-THC are required to measure and report results using a standard delta-9-THC unit in all applicable human subjects’ research.  The goal is to increase the comparability across cannabis research studies. A standard delta-9-THC unit is defined as any formulation of cannabis plant material or extract that contains 5 milligrams of delta-9-THC.  A justification should be provided for human research that does not propose to use the standard unit. Please see NOT-DA-21-049 for additional details.

Please see information below regarding research involving syringe services programs (SSPs) and drug paraphernalia distribution:

1. Prohibition on Purchase of Sterile Needles or Syringes and Restriction on Distribution of Sterile Needles or Syringes (Section 527 of Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (Public Law 117-103)
   “Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, no funds appropriated in this Act shall be used to purchase sterile needles or syringes for the hypodermic injection of any illegal drug: Provided, that such limitation does not apply to the use of funds for elements of a program other than making such purchases if the relevant State or local health department, in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, determines that the State or local jurisdiction, as applicable, is experiencing, or is at risk for, a significant increase in hepatitis infections or an HIV outbreak due to injection drug use, and such program is operating in accordance with State and local law.” 
   Per the above statement, the grantee must ensure:
   • NIH funds are not to be used to purchase sterile needles or syringes for the hypodermic injection of any illegal drug.
   • If NIH funds are used for elements of a program other than making such purchases:
     • Your State or local health department, in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has determined that the State or local jurisdiction, as applicable, is experiencing, or is at risk for, a significant increase in hepatitis infections or an HIV outbreak due to injection drug use; and 
     • The program is operating in accordance with State and local law.
   Please see listed legislative mandates in effect.
2. Jurisdictions Determined to be Experiencing or At-risk of Significant Increases in Hepatitis Infection or an HIV Outbreak Due to Injection Drug Use Following CDC Consultation
   Please see CDC’s table of the jurisdictions that have consulted CDC and have been determined to have adequately demonstrated need for a SSP.
3. Federal Drug Paraphernalia Law
   Per 21 U.S.C. § 863(a), “It is unlawful for any person to (1) sell or offer for sale drug paraphernalia; (2) to use the mails or any other facility of interstate commerce to transport drug paraphernalia; or (3) to import or export drug paraphernalia.” Section 863(d) defines the term “drug paraphernalia” as “any equipment, product, or material of any kind which is primarily intended or designed for use in manufacturing, compounding, converting, concealing, producing, processing, preparing, injecting, ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing into the human body a controlled substance, possession of which is unlawful under this subchapter.” Examples of drug paraphernalia are provided in Section 863(d). Grantees are encouraged to reach out to their legal counsel with questions about this law.