U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
HEAL PAIN Cohort Program: Now Recruiting Trainees
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is excited to announce the launch of a new post-doctoral training program called the HEAL Initiative Partnerships to Advance INterdisciplinary (PAIN) Training Program in Clinical Pain Research. The HEAL PAIN Cohort Program, via the T90/R90 mechanism, provides interdisciplinary training to postdoctoral scholars pursuing careers in pain and addiction research. By integrating a broad range of scientific disciplines and fostering a collaborative research environment, the program equips trainees with the skills needed to advance pain science, develop innovative treatments, and translate research findings into clinical practice. This program will emphasize mentorship, career development, and hands-on research experience. The program will help ensure postdoctoral trainees are well-prepared to contribute to the HEAL Initiative's mission of improving pain management.
The Positively Uniting Researchers of Pain to Opine, Synthesize, and Engage (PURPOSE) network will help facilitate a national cohort experience among the postdoctoral trainees at the funded T90/R90 centers, as well as organize an annual meeting that all trainees will be required to attend. Learn more and join the PURPOSE network at https://painresearchers.com/.
Trainee/Participant Eligibility
- Each of the postdoctoral training centers will support:
- 4 postdoctoral trainees who meet criteria for the NRSA program (also called T90 trainees).
- 1 postdoctoral participant who does not meet the qualifications for support under the NRSA program (also called a R90 participant). This would include researchers who are NOT U.S. citizens.
- T90 trainees and R90 participants will receive support for 2-3 years.
- Potential Trainees/Participants applying to be trained at one of the T90/R90 centers will be required to submit a personal statement demonstrating their interest and promise in clinical pain research.
- Potential Trainees/Participants may come from a traditional or non-traditional pain research field.
For more information and to apply, please reach out to the center(s) of interest directly below.
The University of Utah Program to Provide Pain Research Knowledge (UP3RK) mission is to impart the science knowledge, skills, and core competencies needed by post-graduate, interdisciplinary Scholars to address the nation’s scientific needs in clinical pain research. UP3RK trains Scholars through mentorship, interdisciplinary research skill development and concentrated training in our four focus areas (nonpharmacologic pain treatments, effective interventions for pain and substance use disorders; implementation science, research within vulnerable, diverse, and underserved populations). We train UP3RK Scholars within an innovative, multi-level mentor model to prepare clinical pain investigators for successful, independent, research careers.
Contact PI: Dr. Julie Fritz, [email protected]
The MGB IMPACT (Interdisciplinary Mentorship Program Advising Clinical Trainees) Program in Clinical Pain Research is based in Boston. The program offers training to postdoctoral fellows, with the long-term goal of expanding the number, diversity, and collaborative network of clinical pain researchers, advancing our understanding of pain and our ability to effectively manage pain without opioid medications. MGB IMPACT focuses on team science, providing interdisciplinary mentorship and training in clinical pain research by bringing together a diverse group of mentors from an array of backgrounds, including Psychology, Neurology, Neuroscience, Psychiatry, Women's Health, Epidemiology and others. MGB IMPACT operates collaboratively with other T90/R90 programs around the country to promote innovative solutions for pain management and improve patient care by providing high-quality training to future leaders in clinical pain research.
Contact PI: Dr. Robert Edwards, [email protected]
The Stanford PAIN cohort is dedicated to interdisciplinary research training in maternal and childhood pain and bioinformatics. We will train participants from across the national cohort in pediatric and maternal health and pain, equipping a new generation of clinical pain researchers to apply a lifespan lens to identify primary and secondary prevention strategies to address the pain epidemic. Core faculty research leaders will help match trainees to mentors within the Stanford PAIN cohort content areas of: (1) bioinformatics, (2) pain across the lifespan, specifically child and maternal pain, (3) nonpharmacological (behavioral) interventions for pain, (4) prevention of the transition from acute to chronic pain and (5) advancing health equity in the field of pain.
Contact PI: Dr. Laura Simons, [email protected]
The University of Michigan Pain T90/R90 program is looking for postdoctoral scholars interested in a career in pain science. We have a broad range of mentors that can help guide scholars in nearly any type of clinical or translational pain science. A focus of this program will be the career development of the scholars, who generally will be expected to write a NIH career development award (K award) during this postdoc.
Contact PI: Dr. Daniel Clauw, [email protected]
The University of Florida Partnerships Across Interdisciplinary Networks: Training through Engineering, Epidemiology & Addiction Medicine or UF PAIN TEAM is located in Gainesville, North Central Florida. The program offers postdoctoral training to fellows interested in pursuing clinical pain research within collaborative interdisciplinary teams across the UF Pain Research & Intervention Center of Excellence (PRICE). During the first year of the program, fellows will identify and partner with other fellow(s) in the program and along with mentors will develop a team science project extending their individual research projects. Our long-term goal is to increase the number of pain researchers able to perform complex team science research, advancing our understanding of pain and therapeutic options. Our mentors span interdisciplinary backgrounds including Neuroscience, Engineering, Psychology, Epidemiology, Addiction Medicine, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Physical Therapy, Anesthesiology, and others. The UF PAIN TEAM will also work collaboratively with other T90/R90 programs around the country to increase our future clinical pain workforce and their ability to work within large interdisciplinary teams.
Contact PI: Dr. Yenisel Cruz-Almeida, [email protected]
At Washington University in St. Louis we have developed a new postdoctoral training program: the Promoting Excellence through Pain and Addiction Research Enhancement (PREPARE) T90/R90 Training Program. A defining feature of the PREPARE Program will be an emphasis on social determinants of health (SDOH) as they relate to chronic pain and substance use disorders clinical research. SDOH define the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, and the inequities in power, money, and resources that are often responsible for disparities in pain and substance use outcomes across the U.S. Our overall goal is to develop outstanding independent investigators capable of sustaining productive clinical research careers addressing the biopsychosocial (emphasis on social) mechanisms underlying chronic pain and substance use disorder development, and/or designing clinical interventions to relieve pain and ameliorate substance use.
Contact PI: Dr. Burel Goodin, [email protected]