State Opioid Response Grants | TI 18 015

Opportunity Information: Apply for TI 18 015

The State Opioid Response Grants (SOR) opportunity is a federal funding program run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Released for fiscal year 2018, it is designed to help states and territories strengthen and speed up their response to the opioid crisis by expanding prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts focused specifically on opioid use disorder (OUD). The program emphasizes reducing unmet need for treatment and lowering opioid overdose deaths tied to prescription opioids, heroin, and increasingly dangerous illicit fentanyl and fentanyl analogs.

A central priority of SOR is scaling up medication-assisted treatment (MAT) using the three FDA-approved medications for OUD. While the notice does not list them by name, these medications are commonly understood in federal OUD policy to be methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone. The grants are intended to increase access to these medications as part of evidence-based care, alongside appropriate psychosocial interventions and recovery supports. In practice, this means states are expected not only to fund clinical services, but also to strengthen the systems that make treatment easier to start, maintain, and successfully complete.

Funding is distributed primarily by formula to state and territorial governments, rather than through a purely competitive selection process. In addition, the program includes a targeted funding feature: a 15 percent set-aside reserved for the ten states with the highest overdose mortality rates. This design reflects the reality that the epidemic has hit some jurisdictions disproportionately hard and aims to direct extra resources to the places with the greatest burden of overdose deaths.

Applicants are required to ground their approach in data and clear system planning. States must use epidemiological data to identify and document the most critical gaps in OUD treatment availability, including where gaps exist geographically (for example, rural or underserved regions), demographically (such as populations experiencing higher risk or poorer access), and at the service level (like shortages in prescribers, detox capacity, outpatient access, or recovery supports). Beyond identifying needs, states must describe evidence-based implementation strategies and system design models that can close those gaps quickly and effectively. The expectation is that states will select approaches proven to work and demonstrate how their chosen model will expand capacity and improve outcomes at scale.

States receiving SOR funds must deliver evidence-based treatment interventions that include FDA-approved OUD medications, paired with psychosocial services where appropriate, and must track and report their progress. Reporting focuses on two major outcomes: increasing the availability and use of medication-assisted treatment and reducing opioid-related overdose deaths. The grant is framed as a supplement to the work state agencies are already doing, supporting a more comprehensive statewide response rather than replacing existing programs. Because of that, the funding must supplement and not supplant current opioid prevention, treatment, and recovery activities, meaning states cannot simply substitute federal dollars for money they already budgeted for the same purposes.

The opportunity also stresses that a complete response goes beyond prescribing medication. States are expected to use assessments to identify both gaps and existing resources, then build on current prevention and treatment infrastructure as well as community-based recovery support services. Applicants must explain how they will expand access not only to treatment, but also to recovery supports that help people stabilize and sustain long-term recovery, such as peer services, recovery housing supports, employment-related supports, and other community-based services, as allowed under the grant framework.

Prevention is another required component, and it is meant to be coordinated with other federal efforts so that strategies are aligned rather than duplicative. This can include activities aimed at reducing initiation of opioid misuse, improving prescribing and pain-management practices through evidence-based approaches, strengthening community prevention initiatives, and improving overdose prevention measures, as long as the work fits within the program rules and is connected to reducing OUD and overdose harms.

A specific operational expectation in the grant is improving retention in care. States must describe how they will keep people engaged in treatment over time, recognizing OUD as a chronic condition for many individuals. The notice highlights using a chronic care model or another innovative approach that has already shown success in improving retention. This focus reflects a key challenge in OUD systems: treatment access matters, but sustained engagement is often what drives lower relapse risk, reduced overdose risk, and better long-term health and social outcomes.

From the source details, the opportunity is a discretionary grant (Funding Opportunity Number TI 18 015) under CFDA 93.788, open to eligible applicants that are state governments. It was created on June 14, 2018, with an original application deadline of August 13, 2018. The notice lists an award ceiling of $930,000,000 and an expected 59 awards, which aligns with the number of states and territories typically eligible for formula-based SAMHSA funding.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminis in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "State Opioid Response Grants" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.788.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 14, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 13, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $930,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 59 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments.

Apply for TI 18 015

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: