NCCIH’s Role in the NIH HEAL Initiative

NCCIH is playing a major role in the Helping to End Addiction Long-term^® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative^®, a trans-agency effort focused on improving prevention and treatment strategies for opioid misuse and addiction, and enhancing pain management. Launched in April 2018 with funding from Congress, the initiative brings new hope for individuals, families, and communities affected by the national opioid public health crisis.

NCCIH is leading or co-leading the following NIH HEAL Initiative programs:

• Pragmatic and Implementation Studies for the Management of Pain to Reduce Opioid Prescribing (PRISM)
• Behavioral Research to Improve Medication Assisted Treatment (BRIM)
• The NIH Back Pain Research Consortium (NIH BACPAC)
• New Funding Opportunity on Biomarkers for Myofascial Pain
• Restoring Joint Health and Function to Reduce Pain (RE-JOIN) Consortium 

NIH HEAL Workforce Initiatives

Training the next generation of researchers is critical. Learn more about a few important efforts: 

• HEAL National K12 program
  A mentored career development program designed to provide protected time for clinicians and scientists to focus on training in and conducting clinical pain research.
• PURPOSE (Positively Uniting Researchers of Pain to Opine, Synthesize, and Engage)
  An NIH-funded platform with tools for collaboration, funding, and dissemination of pain research.
• The HEAL Initiative Partnerships to Advance INterdisciplinary (PAIN) Training Program in Clinical Pain Research
  Interdisciplinary training to postdoctoral scholars pursuing careers in pain and addiction research.

All NIH funding opportunities related to pain are available on the NIH Pain Consortium website.