Federal Grant Award Summary

The National Institute on Drug Abuse awarded Rutgers The State University Of New Jersey a $139,612 Project Grant under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279) beginning February 1, 2026 and concluding January 31, 2028. This award supports postdoctoral research training and capacity building for Dr. Xiangyu Tao at the Rutgers Addiction Research Center to develop expertise in analyzing online peer support communities for substance use disorder (SUD) recovery. The grant funds the integration of artificial intelligence techniques, specifically large language models (LLMs), with co-production methodologies—involving individuals with lived SUD recovery experience—to identify communication patterns in social media recovery groups and examine their associations with recovery outcomes.

During the K99 mentored phase, deliverables include characterization of peer support and co-rumination communication patterns using LLMs and co-production approaches, classification of distinct user communication profiles through latent class analysis, and structured mentorship for the postdoctoral fellow in co-production research methodologies. This research addresses a critical gap in understanding how online peer support engagement influences SUD recovery outcomes by combining computational analysis with community input to mitigate algorithmic limitations and ensure findings reflect lived experience perspectives.