Butler Hospital

Butler Hospital, a division of Care New England Health System, is a tax-exempt psychiatric hospital based in Providence, Rhode Island, that serves as a federal grant recipient conducting clinical research and mental health intervention trials across the National Institutes of Health (NIH), principally as a sub-recipient on academic research networks. Butler Hospital does not hold federal contracts and operates entirely within the grant funding space, with no SBA designations or contract vehicle positions.

Butler Hospital's federal footprint centers on behavioral health and mental health research. The institution acts as a prime recipient on its own NIH-funded grants and as a frequent sub-recipient on larger multi-site studies led by Brown University, Washington University, Michigan State University, and Boston University. Recent prime awards include a $781.566 thousand National Institute of Mental Health grant (CFDA 93.242) awarded September 2026 to develop RESTEPS, a suicide prevention intervention for youth with first-episode psychosis transitioning from acute care to outpatient treatment; a $165.987 thousand NIMH grant (CFDA 93.242) awarded May 2026 for the SAFER project examining suicide risk management protocols in research; and a $4 million Community Project Funding/Congressional Directed Spending award from the Healthcare Systems Bureau in September 2023 for construction of a 25-bed short-stay psychiatric unit. Other representative prime work includes NIH-funded studies on mindfulness-based therapy for serious mental illness, behavioral interventions for perinatal cannabis use, ecological assessment of suicide risk during care transitions, and transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy for adolescent obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Butler Hospital's customer concentration reflects its academic research positioning. The top five funding agencies account for 77% of awards by count: the National Institute on Aging (52 awards), the National Institute of Mental Health (44 awards), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (21 awards), the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (18 awards), and the broader NIH organization (45 awards). The Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration Veterans Integrated Service Network 1 carries $308 thousand in combined potential value across three awards, representing the only significant non-NIH customer by dollar magnitude. Award volume has accelerated sharply — from 15 awards in 2022 to 49 in 2024 — though recent activity moderated to 20 in 2025 and 12 in 2026.

As a sub-recipient, Butler Hospital participates in multi-site trials where lead institutions (particularly Brown University, Washington University, Michigan State University, and Boston University) coordinate research networks. Representative sub-award roles include serving as a study site on the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN) studies sponsored by Washington University, conducting ecological momentary assessment protocols and participant recruitment on behavioral health trials led by Brown investigators, supervising research staff and delivery of psychotherapeutic interventions on randomized controlled trials for perinatal mental health (Michigan State lead) and cardiac rehabilitation (Rutgers lead), and providing clinical and administrative infrastructure for multi-site consortia including the Alzheimer's Clinical Trials Consortium and the COBRE (Center of Biomedical Research Excellence) for Stress, Trauma and Resilience. Butler staff, including researchers specializing in addiction medicine, mental health outcomes, and geriatric neurocognitive assessment, hold co-investigator and safety-monitoring roles across these studies.

The 233 awards in the source footprint span 15 years of recent activity, with 132 prime awards (57%) and 101 sub-awards (43%). Combined obligated dollars total $248.4 million against $312 thousand in potential value, indicating mature awards with significant expenditure. Ten awards face completion within the next 24 months, presenting renewal or competitive recompete opportunity. Butler Hospital's role as a teaching hospital affiliated with Brown University's Alpert Medical School of Psychiatry and Human Behavior positions it as an infrastructure asset and recruitment engine for federally funded clinical research networks in psychiatry, aging, neurodegenerative disease, and substance abuse treatment.