# Center for Underrepresented Research in Addiction (CURA)

> **NIH NIH R25** · LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO · 2024 · $266,328

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Despite many years of discussion, research, and efforts to promote change, a great disparity remains between
the presence of African American, Hispanic, Native American, People with Disabilities, and other
underrepresented minority (URM) faculty at US research universities and their representation in the US
population. This reality is no less true in the neurosciences than in other disciplines. Moreover, URMs who do
achieve faculty status appear to achieve traditional measures of success at a lower rate than do their majority
counterparts. Although data on publications and funding rates appear to be lacking, there is a striking absence
of URMs in visible positions of prominence as full professors or chairs at universities and as symposia speakers,
journal editors, or societal officers. We believe that these two problems are related – that if those URMs who are
faculty become more successful in regard to those measures, this in turn will stimulate an influx of other URMs
into faculty ranks. Our evaluation of available programs in the US indicates that there are limited opportunities
to adequately assist early career URM faculty in overcoming these difficulties, and it is this problem that we seek
to address through the Center for Underrepresented Research in Addiction (CURA) to promote the advancement
of junior faculty members in drug addiction research at research universities. Defining success for such faculty
in terms of quality and quantity of manuscripts, grants submitted, and funded, visibility at the national level,
mentoring of others by the participants, and promotion, we propose to establish a program based on the following
hypothesis: The success of early career URM faculty in drug addiction research can be increased substantially
by an intensive individualized educational program focused on (1) and individualized career development plan
and the identification of a team of relevant mentors (2) strong instruction in professional skills and the responsible
conduct of research (RCR), (3) individualized and frequent mentoring by senior established faculty (4)
development of an expanded network and peer-mentoring, and (5) the promotion and enhancement of the career
of URM faculty at their own institutions. To test this hypothesis, we will develop the CURA program to advance
the career of URM faculty. We will recruit 10 early career URM faculty in drug addiction research each year for
five years who have great promise for success. We will then develop career development programs for each
participant and together the participant and mentoring team will develop a career development plan. To facilitate
that plan we will establish a one-year educational program consisting of (a) workshops, (b) strong mentoring, (c)
attendance at professional scientific meetings, (d) assistance in the expansion of their network, and (e)
mechanisms to promote communication and peer-mentoring among the participants. The impact of our efforts
will be evaluat...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10690595
- **Project number:** 5R25DA050727-06
- **Recipient organization:** LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Gonzalo E. Torres
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $266,328
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-01-01 → 2025-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10690595

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10690595, Center for Underrepresented Research in Addiction (CURA) (5R25DA050727-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10690595. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*