U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
What is the NIH HEAL Initiative?
The Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative®, is an aggressive, trans-agency effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. Almost every NIH Institute and Center is accelerating research to address this public health emergency from all angles.
The initiative is funding hundreds of projects nationwide. Researchers are taking a variety of approaches to tackle the opioid epidemic through:
- Understanding, managing, and treating pain
- Improving prevention and treatment for opioid misuse and addiction
Featured News
HEAL and BRAIN Research Identifies Individual Chronic Pain Signatures
New NIH research measures pain-related brain activity in real time from inside the brains of people with chronic pain caused by stroke or amputation. Chronic pain signatures that measure pain episodes in individuals in real time may lead to personalized approaches for effective, non-addictive pain management.
The Power of Connection: Improving Care for Infants Exposed to Opioids
HEAL recently announced major new findings that will change clinical care for infants born with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome. This month’s Director’s Message describes how the Eat, Sleep, Console care approach prioritizes non-opioid care as a first line of treatment, as well as how HEAL is committed to finding the best approaches to address the medical and social needs of these children as they grow.
Latest Research Spotlight
Targeted Research to Improve Joint Pain
The Restoring Joint Health and Function to Reduce Pain (RE-JOIN) Consortium
Read the SpotlightNIH HEAL Initiative 2023 Annual Report
Now in its fourth year of funding, the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative®, continues to seek urgent answers to the nation’s evolving pain and opioid crises.
View Annual Report pageResearch Priorities
In 2018, NIH, in consultation with a broad range of stakeholders, identified a set of research priorities reflecting urgent unmet needs across the lifespan, areas of promising scientific opportunity, and concrete strategies capable of providing rapid and durable solutions to the opioid crisis.
Through evidence-based scientific research, the NIH HEAL Initiative will provide lasting, scientific solutions to the opioid crisis.
Learn more about the initiative's research prioritiesExplore Funding for Your Research
Through the initiative, NIH supports research to enhance pain management and to prevent and improve treatment for opioid misuse and addiction. The initiative funds work in research focus areas led by most NIH ICs supporting hundreds of projects, from basic science to implementation research.
See Open HEAL Funding Opportunities