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Principal Investigator: CURT G BECKWITH
Organization: RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $331,910
Funding agency: National Institute of General Medical Sciences
PROJECT SUMMARY
The Community Engaged Research Core (CERC) of the COBRE on Opioids and Overdose, formerly the
Special Populations Core in Phase 1, promotes research among people who are impacted by opioids and
overdose, particularly people who are vulnerable and underserved. The CERC supports the overall mission of
the COBRE by building research infrastructure and providing services to early-stage investigators to support
the recruitment and retention of vulnerable and underserved individuals as research participants and promotes
the importance of community engagement with the goal of developing more robust, rigorous, and competitive
research projects. Guided by the conceptual and theoretical framework of Community Engaged and
Participatory Research, the CERC focuses on addressing the opioid epidemic by supporting and expanding
community-engaged research. The near-term goals of the CERC are to support Project Leaders and pilot-
funded investigators in the conduct of community-engaged research related to opioids and overdose. The long-
term goals of the CERC are to build a sustainable research infrastructure to support research involving people
impacted by opioids and overdose, particularly people from vulnerable and underserved communities, across
Rhode Island Hospital and affiliated institutions. The CERC promotes clinical, behavioral, and translational
research inclusive of community perspectives through four specific aims. Aim 1) Develop, promote, and
support best practices related to community engagement in research on opioids and overdose by a) offering
trainings and consultations to COBRE-supported investigators, affiliated researchers, and community partner
organizations on the Core’s five Principles of Community Empowered Research; b) maintaining and promoting
the established community advisory board to advise COBRE investigators at all stages of research; and c)
developing and implementing standards for trauma-informed research for COBRE projects. Aim 2) Promote
and support the ethical conduct of research on opioids and overdose by: a) providing regulatory support and
consultation services for human subjects research; b) creating project-specific advisory panels comprised of
researchers and community stakeholders to provide guidance on study design, implementation, and
dissemination activities; and c) providing mentoring in traditional research ethics and the ethics of community-
engaged research. Aim 3) Promote research on Harm Reduction (HR) by: a) facilitating HR research
presentations/workshops and offering HR trainings to community partners; b) supporting investigators
conducting HR research by engaging with HR organizations and people who use drugs; and 3) supporting drug
checking research within impacted communities. Aim 4) Promote the role of community engagement in
achieving rigor and reproducibility by: 1) mentoring new investigators on integrating community-engaged
research into study design, recruitment, data collection, and analysis; and 2) conducting workshops on how
community-engaged research can assist in strengthening attention to rigor, replication, and issues of external
validity across COBRE research activities.
Terms: <Address><Applications Grants><Area><Attention><Behavioral Research><Black><Black race><COBRE><COVID crisis><COVID epidemic><COVID pandemic><COVID-19 crisis><COVID-19 epidemic><COVID-19 era><COVID-19 global health crisis><COVID-19 global pandemic><COVID-19 health crisis><COVID-19 pandemic><COVID-19 period><COVID-19 public health crisis><COVID-19 years><Center of Biomedical Research Excellence><Centers of Research Excellence><Clinical><Clinical Research><Clinical Study><Color><Communities><Consultations><Data Collection><Drug user><Drugs><Educational workshop><Environment><Ethics><Failure><Funding><Future><Goals><Grant Proposals><Harm Minimization><Harm Reduction><Health><Healthcare><Hospitals><Human Subject Research><IRB><IRBs><Indigenous><Institution><Institutional Review Boards><Investigators><Lived experience><Lived experiences><Medication><Mentors><Mission><NIH><Names><National Institutes of Health><Opiates><Opioid><Overdose><PWUD><Participant><Persons><Pharmaceutical Preparations><Phase><R-Series Research Projects><R01 Mechanism><R01 Program><Reproducibility><Research><Research Activity><Research Design><Research Ethics><Research Grants><Research Infrastructure><Research Personnel><Research Project Grants><Research Projects><Research Support><Researchers><Rhode Island><Role><SARS-CoV-2 epidemic><SARS-CoV-2 global health crisis><SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic><SARS-CoV-2 pandemic><SARS-coronavirus-2 epidemic><SARS-coronavirus-2 pandemic><Services><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2 epidemic><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2 pandemic><Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 epidemic><Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic><Special Population><Study Type><Substance Use Disorder><Technology><Training><Translational Research><Translational Science><Trauma><Underserved Population><United States National Institutes of Health><Vulnerable Populations><Workshop><community advisory board><community advisory committee><community advisory panel><community based organizations><community empowerment><community engaged participatory research><community engaged research><community engagement><community marginalization><community organizations><community partnered research><community partners><community-based partners><community-engaged study><community-partnered study><consultation><coronavirus disease 2019 crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic><coronavirus disease 2019 global health crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 global pandemic><coronavirus disease 2019 health crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic><coronavirus disease 2019 public health crisis><coronavirus disease crisis><coronavirus disease epidemic><coronavirus disease pandemic><coronavirus disease-19 global pandemic><coronavirus disease-19 pandemic><disparity in health><drug/agent><engagement with communities><ethical><fentanyl test><health care><health disparity><marginalized community><name><named><naming><opiate crisis><opiate use disorder><opioid crisis><opioid epidemic><opioid use disorder><overdose death><overdose fatalities><people who use drugs><people who use illicit drugs><persons who use drugs><recruit><severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 global health crisis><severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 global pandemic><skills><social role><study design><substance use and disorder><test for fentanyl><test strip><translation research><translational investigation><under served community><under served group><under served individual><under served people><under served population><underserved community><underserved group><underserved individual><underserved people><vulnerable community><vulnerable group><vulnerable individual><vulnerable people>