This study is part of the NIH’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative to speed scientific solutions to the national opioid public health crisis. The NIH HEAL Initiative bolsters research across NIH to improve treatment for opioid misuse and addiction. In 2019, the University of Utah’s (UU) Greater Intermountain Node (GIN) expanded the existing NIH NIDA Clinical Trial Network’s (CTN) infrastructure by developing and testing innovative approaches for preventing, intervening, and treating opioid use disorder (OUD); preventing overdose; expanding settings for CTN research; and bringing new research acumen to the CTN. GIN successfully brought research and methodological expertise to 3 areas of focus of OUD research: (1) non-addiction-specialty health care settings, (2) large health care systems of care, and (3) implementation science. GIN’s transdisciplinary leadership team and infrastructure has demonstrated a proven history of CTN grant productivity and addiction scholarship. We seek to continue to evolve GIN into a regional and national addiction science hub to expand CTN’s investigative reach to new faculty, organizations, and persons with vulnerabilities and their communities. GIN will evolve its mission to expand the existing CTN infrastructure by developing and testing innovative interventions to prevent and treat substance use disorders (SUDs) and prevent overdose, expanding settings for CTN research, and bringing new/needed SUD expertise to regional/national communities. To accomplish this, we will evolve our prior OUD-centered foci to a GIN Research Agenda of broader SUD foci: (1) research in non-addiction-specialty care settings, (2) addiction research with persons with vulnerabilities, and (3) research to inform addiction health services/care policy. GIN’s focus of research in non-addiction-specialty care settings will enable the CTN to continue a paramount line of research within novel settings, that is, settings outside the traditional milieu of specialty addiction treatment. GIN’s focus of addiction research with persons with vulnerabilities will enable CTN to expand its research to address SUD within populations and communities that suffer disproportionate health inequities. GIN will execute a plan for enhancing diverse perspectives by engaging persons with vulnerabilities and their communities. GIN’s focus of research to inform addiction health services/care policy will enable CTN access to existing public and commercial administrative health care databases to facilitate the field’s understanding of addiction policies and reduce policy barriers to implementation of evidence-based practices. GIN will achieve the following 4 GIN AIMS: AIM1: Enhance CTN’s ability to conduct research in GIN’s Research Agenda; AIM2: Enhance the CTN’s ability to train the next generation of investigators (Training Agenda); AIM3: Enhance the CTN’s ability to reach new patient populations and organizations serving those populations (Community Engagement Agenda); AIM4: Enhance our ability to disseminate our research and research impacts to the public, stakeholder, and research communities (Dissemination Agenda). Through GINs new Research, Training, Community Engagement, and Dissemination Agendas, GIN in poised to confront the SUD challenges that confront PWV communities and the nation.

PROJECT NARRATIVE The Greater Intermountain Node’s mission is to expand the existing National Institute of Drug Abuse’s Clinical Trial Network infrastructure by developing and testing innovative interventions to prevent and treat substance use disorders and prevent overdose. GIN is positioned to achieve its mission through its robust institutional support from the University of Utah; community collaborations that further enhance diverse perspectives; and an infrastructure with already established success at proposing, leading, and hosting multi-site studies. Through its new Research, Training, Community Engagement, and Dissemination Agendas—GIN is poised to confront the SUD challenges that confront PWV communities and the nation.