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10/01/2009

NIDA Research Core Center funded at $1.46 million - the USF Center on Co-Occurring Disorders, Justice, and Multidisciplinary Research (CJM Center)

 

The Department of Mental Health Law and Policy at the University of South Florida has just received a $1.46 million two-year grant award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to support the development of a Research Core Center, entitled the USF Center on Co-Occurring Disorders, Justice, and Multidisciplinary Research (CJM Center).  Roger Peters serves as Principal Investigator for this project, and Kathleen Moore, Paul Stiles, and Richard Dembo (Department of Criminology) serve as Co-PI’s.  The grant is funded via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and is designed to support recruitment and development of three junior investigators in areas of biomedical research relevant to NIH, to enhance existing innovative programs of excellence.  The Research Core Center will focus on co-occurring disorders in the justice system, with a particular emphasis on implementation science/translational research, trauma, and veterans issues.  The three junior investigators hired under the grant will have joint appointments on tenure-earning faculty lines at USF.  Two of the investigators will have primary faculty appointments in the BCS College (MHLP serves as the home department for both; one with a joint appointment to COPH’s Department of Community and Family Health, and one with a joint appointment to the Department of Criminology), and one faculty member will have a primary appointment in the College of Arts and Sciences (Psychology serves as the home department, with a joint appointment to MHLP).  The grant provides a rich infrastructure of research support, including internal mentors at USF, external mentors at NIDA-supported Research Centers (CJDATS-2 Network), conference travel, pilot research funds, limited requirements for teaching assignments during the first four years of employment, and involvement in a ‘Virtual Collaboratory’ research network.  An aggressive recruiting effort is underway to hire the three new faculty members by January 2010.