Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) awarded $706,500 under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279) to Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, School of Nursing, for a three-year project period (July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2029). This R34 resubmission grant supports the development, refinement, and feasibility/acceptability testing of a telehealth-delivered motivational interviewing (MI) intervention designed to address electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) use among young adults aged 18–35. The project will develop a cessation-induction intervention targeting young adults interested in quitting ENDS but not yet ready to do so, as well as provide harm reduction and cessation assistance for those who become motivated. The intervention will be compared to a control condition providing standard cessation resources in a randomized clinical trial with 80 participants.

This project addresses a significant public health gap: while treatment guidelines for combustible cigarette cessation are well established, no evidence-based counseling interventions currently exist specifically for young adults using ENDS. The research will generate data to inform larger-scale studies and develop effective approaches for the growing population of young adults addicted to and contemplating quitting e-cigarettes. The work will be conducted at Rutgers' Newark, New Jersey location, where the School of Nursing maintains extensive experience as a prime recipient of federal research funding across multiple National Institutes of Health institutes, including prior NIDA-funded investigations into nicotine product use patterns.