We at NIDA fund research that's related to drug use, abuse, prevention; all with the idea of finding a cure, or preventing and curing drug abuse, alleviating the burden of drug abuse. NIDA is also one of the larger NIH institutes for funding HIV and AIDS research. So, and a lot of people don't know that, but there is a relationship, of course, between drug use and abuse, and HIV and AIDS.

The number one mistake early career investigators make is failing to talk with someone at NIH or any other grant-making organization prior to submitting their application. And then, I'd say the second thing is failure to read the instructions. Those are two things; you really need to talk to someone before applying for a grant. You need to know what the priorities are, what the priorities of the institute are, and you need to know how your research might fit with the priorities of the institute.

Dual assignment, secondary and tertiary assignment, really opens the PI's grant up to other opportunities for funding. So, if one institute isn't able to fund a grant, then other institutes might be able to help, or co-fund, or even take the grant for primary funding. So, it sort of opens you up to additional opportunities that aren't there if only one grant has your, one institute has your grant.

There are a number of different training opportunities that NIDA has, NIDA shares with the rest of NIH, and the Office of Special Populations at NIDA also has training. So, training grants, training mechanisms are priority. Early career investigator-initiated research is a priority for NIDA as well as the NIH.