Federal Grant Award Summary

The University of Vermont received a $387,291 Project Grant award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279), effective March 1, 2026, through December 31, 2030. This research initiative delivers comprehensive scientific analysis examining developmental vulnerabilities to cannabis exposure and causal relationships between cannabis use, neurodevelopment, and behavioral outcomes. The project leverages three large multimodal neuroimaging datasets—the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD, N=11,880), IMAGEN (N=2,400), and ENIGMA-Addiction (N=14,340)—spanning preadolescence through late adulthood to identify critical developmental windows of brain vulnerability to cannabis exposure.

The research products include longitudinal neuroimaging analyses employing linear mixed-effects models, nonparametric permutation testing, and advanced causal inference methodologies including propensity score matching, cross-lagged panel designs, discordant twin analyses, and Bayesian causal networks. These analytical approaches move beyond associational studies to establish causal mechanisms linking cannabis exposure to prefrontal cortex development and behavioral trajectories, while simultaneously examining co-occurring risk factors such as alcohol and tobacco use, physical activity levels, and psychopathology. Findings are explicitly validated across multiple datasets to ensure replicability and scientific rigor, with deliverables designed to address critical knowledge gaps regarding cannabis use impacts on human brain development and inform public health policy amid expanding legalization trends.