The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) wishes to encourage currently funded investigators and future applicants to consider the expansion of existing projects, or development of new research projects, to address questions arising from the challenges posed by recent events of terrorism and bioterrorism. This issue may be considered in the context of any of NIAAA’s Program Announcements.

Potential areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to the following:

• Tracking alcohol-related hospitalizations and deaths, using local, regional, national or other data sets
• Assessing shifts in alcohol use, abuse, or dependence at clinical and sub-clinical levels
• Examining changes in the demand for alcohol treatment and assessing any changes in unmet treatment needs
• Assessing increased rates of relapse among persons recovered from previous alcohol abuse and dependence disorders
• Developing and evaluating interventions to prevent increased levels of alcohol use and abuse subsequent to terrorism events, particularly for potentially vulnerable populations (e.g., persons with direct and severe exposure, persons with previous alcohol abuse or mental health disorder, rescue and recovery personnel, etc.)
• Investigating potential interactions of alcohol with antibiotic agents in widespread use to combat bioterrorism (e.g., ciprofloxacin, deoxycycline, etc.)

In some instances terrorism-relevant research may be conducted within the scope of currently funded grants. In this case, either administrative supplements (under $100,000 in direct costs) or competitive supplements will be considered for terrorism-related investigations that are a logical extension of the scope of the existing grant award.

For new projects, investigators may propose separate terrorism-related specific aims within a broader research grant application or may submit a separate application under any of NIAAA’s research mechanisms (e.g., R01, R03, R21, etc.).

Investigators are directed to the NIAAA Home Page (www.niaaa.nih.gov) under Extramural Research/Program Announcements/NIAAA Research Program Announcements (/NR/exeres/00AD0179-9F8C-4784-ADEC-B6AE99F8161A.htm) for further details on current NIAAA Program Announcements for which terrorism-related research questions may be considered responsive.

Investigators seeking funds to analyze terrorism-relevant data that have been obtained from current or past investigator-initiated research activities or from other public or private sources may refer to the following announcements: "Secondary Analysis of Existing Alcohol Epidemiology Data Sets" (grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-01-140.html) or "Secondary Analysis of Existing Health Services Data Sets" (grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-00-100.html).

For further information, please contact the following program official:

Updated: January 2009