Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Grant: Community Intervention Against Opioid Overdose

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP),Executive Office of the President, is seeking applications from public nonprofit institutions/organizations(includes institutions of higher education and hospitals) to:

1. Undertakeresearch activities that would entail implementing and evaluatingcommunity-based efforts to fight the opioid overdose epidemic; and

2. Supportand promote the partnership of law enforcement and public health agencies,whose collaboration is critical to reducing overdose and other harms of opioid(mis)use.

Deadline

Applicants must register with Grants.govprior to submitting an application.  Allapplications must be submitted and applicants must be in receipt of asuccessful validation message in Grants.gov by 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time,on September 3, 2019.

Eligibility

Eligible Applicant

• Public nonprofit institutions/organizations(Institutions of Higher Education (Public and/or Private)

• Hospitals (Private nonprofitInstitutions/organizations)

EligibilityCriteria

• Applicantsmust have expert knowledge and extensive experience in conductingresearch and analysis

• Applicants must have expert knowledge andexperience developing or enhancing new or ongoing programs that aim to reduceopioid overdose through strategic, evidence-based approaches. 

• Applicants must partner with a regional HighIntensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program, and applications must includea letter of support/commitment from the participating HIDTA and signed by thesponsoring HIDTA Director.

• In order to be eligible to receive funding underthis award, recipients must be legally recognized as a public or privatenonprofit institution/organization (includes institutions of higher educationand hospitals).

ONDCP Combating Opioid Overdose through Community-Level Intervention CooperativeAgreement

A. Program Description

Overview

The opioidepidemic continues throughout the United States, claiming an alarming number oflives each year.  Drug overdose is nowthe leading cause of injury death in the United States, surpassing motorvehicle crashes since 2009.  According to provisional data released by theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reported drug overdoses accounted for more than 67,000 U.S. deaths in 2018 and, of those, more than 47,000(69%) involved an opioid.  This ongoing opioid overdose epidemicpresents new challenges to public health and public safety officials, medicalprofessionals, local communities, and other stakeholders invested in curbing rates of accidental death.  Preparing regional and community leaders to respond effectively to the public healthemergency that is today’s opioid overdose crisis (and be prepared to take onthat crisis as it evolves tomorrow) is essential for achieving the shared goal of preventing fatal overdose and saving lives. To aid this effort, on October 26, 2017, President Trump asked theActing Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to declare the opioid crisis a national Public Health Emergency under Federal law and directed all executive agencies to use every appropriate emergency authority to fight the opioid crisis.

ONDCP expects to award one Federal cooperative agreement under the Combating Opioid Overdose through Community-Level Intervention Initiative for a 1-year period, beginning approximately September 2019.  The successful non-Federal entity (NFE) will conduct research activities thatentail implementing and evaluating community-based efforts to fight the opioid-involved overdose epidemic. These activities will be focused on the regions of the United States with some of the highest rates of fatal and non-fatalopioid-related overdoses and will work to coordinate the often decentralized state and local efforts to assess and respond to opioid-related overdoses.  

Efforts will also support and promote the partnership of law enforcement and public health agencies, as coordination and collaboration between these two groups is provingcritical to addressing this epidemic. Efforts will also align with and be informed by related projects currently being conducted by ONDCP and CDC, and both agencies will work closely with the successful NFE.  In particular,work conducted under this initiative will entail partnership with Federally designated High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program, which are funded by ONDCP and currently partner with the CDC under the Overdose Response Strategy initiative.

Goals, Objectives and What the Governmentis Supporting

The assistance provided under this award will support the NFE’s performance of the award andfulfillment of the following performance areas:

• Research and analyze 1) a range of existing community-based efforts to address opioid-involved overdoses and 2) current evidence-based and proven strategies to reduce opioid-related overdose deaths;

• Using the evidence-based approaches previously identified, implement or enhance community-based new or ongoing programs that aim to reduce opioid-involved overdose, particularly in the regions of the United States with the highest rates of fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses (priority will be given to proposals that make funding available to at least eight communities via subawards);

• Once implemented, support the evaluation of these community-based efforts to assess their efficacy in reducing opioid-involvedoverdose and other harms of opioid (mis)use, particularly in the regions of theUnited States with the highest rates of fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses;

• Support and promote collaboration between publicsafety and public health agencies to ensure that overdose reduction efforts arealigned and that communities benefit from a comprehensive and coordinatedresponse; and

• Provide technical assistance to supportimplementation, evaluation, and reporting by prospective subaward recipients.

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