Who we are:
The Consortium on Addiction Recovery Science (CoARS) is a network of people who seek to support each other in advancing the science of addiction recovery. An important emphasis of our work is on the development, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based recovery support services. More broadly, our goal is to build our understanding of the socioecological framework within which recovery takes place. To this end, our research is designed to deepen our understanding of people in recovery, affected others, service-delivery organizations, and structural and political barriers and facilitators to improved recovery outcomes.
CoARS was initially created (in 2020) by addiction recovery scientists and was designed since its inception to bring together people from multiple key community groups, including people in recovery, people delivering recovery support services, clinicians, healthcare policy makers and more.
CoARS is currently supported by funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2023-2026). It is fueled by our passion for recovery science and grounded in the collaborative relationships we have built over the years, and are adding to every day.
A bit of history…
In 2019, the National Institute on Drug Abuse sought to catalyze research on recovery support services (RSS) by creating RFA-DA-20-014. The goal was to bring together research networks consisting of multiple key community groups—especially people with lived experience—that could advance the science on RSS together. The five networks funded by this RFA banded together to create the Consortium on Addiction Recovery Science (CoARS). This investigator-created consortium has since been recognized by NIDA and has grown through RFA-DA-22-034 and RFA-DA-22-043, which added six investigative teams to the original five R24 teams.
What we do:
Our collective mission is to advance the science on recovery support services and recovery through research networking, training and mentoring students and early career scientists, and building community partnerships. This website is dedicated to sharing information on our activities, and to invite and enable participation.
Main Mechanisms: Our activities are organized through three main mechanisms:
CoARS Showcase Series: monthly online meeting; serves as our ‘town square’; people present their in-progress research, and get feedback
Workgroups: focus on different topic areas; each meets every 1-2 months
National Conference on Addiction Recovery Science (NCARS): occurs annually, online; see past programs
Other Activities: CoARS members also partner on other science-advancing activities, including as editors and authors on recovery-oriented special issues in peer-reviewed journals: