DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Since 2000, the Southern Consortium Node (SCN) has worked closely with community partners and colleagues nationwide in research and dissemination activities designed to improve the treatment of addictions through research and implementation of evidence-based practice. In this renewal application, the SCN proposes to expand to include a broader region of the southeast through partnership with Duke University, a national leader in medical research. Duke University is an ideal partner because of their complementary scientific expertise, strong primary care and HIV research activities, geographic proximity and prior experience with CTN activities. The partnership will extend the SCN's regional and geographic distribution to span a large portion of the Southeastern US and bring close connections with well-established primary care and HIV clinical research networks to broaden the types of clinical settings and patient populations available for CTN trials. The SCN will establish a robust collaboration with the CTSA initiative through a number of individuals who will serve as investigators on both the CTN and CTSA, including Dr. Brady who is the PI of the MUSC CTSA. The primary specific aims for the next five years are: to extend the geographic reach of the SCN to include CTPs and academic partners in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi. To develop research sites in primary care and medical specialty clinics that will expand the diversity of and number of participants available to participate in CTN trials. To increase the use of CTN as a training platform and a research platform for non-CTN research. To develop a robust collaboration between the CTN and both local and national CTSAs for the purpose of bidirectional sharing of "best-practices", informatics and trial design strategies across networks. To expand the scientific expertise available to the CTN through partnership of investigators at MUSC and Duke University.

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The CTN is a cooperative agreement between NIDA, treatment providers and researchers throughout the nation in which science is being utilized as a vehicle to improve the treatment of addictions. It is the goal of the SCN to work collaboratively with NIDA, the newly established coordinating a data centers, and other CTN Nodes in conducting and directing multi-site clinical trials and dissemination efforts.