Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The University of Connecticut Health Center received a $172,075 Project Grant award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279) to develop and test implementation strategies for expanding access to long-acting injectable medications for opioid use disorders (MOUD) in Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs). The two-phase R34 project, initiated May 15, 2026 and concluding March 31, 2029, will employ measurement-based care (MBC) as an implementation strategy to optimize treatment delivery and address barriers at the patient, provider, and organizational levels. The research team will conduct an iterative, user-centered, participatory co-design process with CCBHC patients and providers to develop an MBC-based multi-level implementation approach supporting long-acting injectable buprenorphine implementation.

This implementation research effort addresses a critical public health gap, as approximately 6 million individuals in the United States have opioid use disorders yet most do not receive evidence-based medication treatment. The project will generate evidence regarding whether integrating MBC systems with established implementation strategies such as practice facilitation provides additional clinical and implementation benefits, thereby creating a learning health system model to improve clinical practice and patient outcomes for this underserved population.