The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), one of the components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is announcing the “Remote Assessments of Substance Use Disorder (SUD)-Relevant Measurements” Challenge. The goal of the Challenge is to identify and highlight the current best practices and state-of-the-art approaches to collect remotely assessed measurements of SUD-relevant cognitive, behavioral, physiologic, and environmental information, and compare these to measurements collected in controlled experimental settings (e.g., laboratory or clinical settings). Examples of relevant measurements include physiologic and biological measures, cognitive task performance, behavioral and social measures, and environmental characterizations.
Further, remote assessment approaches should demonstrate the ability to lower the burdens of participation for research participants, particularly disproportionality affected groups and/or under-resourced communities. NIDA expects that the Challenge will inspire adoption of best practices in remote assessment of SUD-relevant measurements by the wider research community. To accomplish these goals, this Challenge will provide both monetary support and exposure to current best practices and methodologies. NIDA will also convene a meeting to highlight the winning submission(s) to foster a community of current and future remote assessment practitioners.
The Challenge will offer up to three awards: up to $150,000 for one first place entry and up to $50,000 each for two second place entries, as well as up to two honorable mention awards of up to $25,000 each. The Challenge total purse is up to $300,000.
Applications are due January 15, 2025.