Research areas

Impact and reach from the world stage to homes and communities.

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We deliver evidence-based outcomes and play a critical role in Australia’s response to understanding the harms of the use of alcohol and other drugs in our communities. While our research metrics place NDARC among the top five research centres globally, we pride ourselves on our research translating into local and global action. Our understanding and impact are guided by the breadth and strength of our nine research activities. Each of these research activities responds directly to the needs of federal and state governments, policy agencies, community groups, service providers, health professionals and clinicians in the AOD sector and related fields.

Treatment and harm reduction

Collaborating with clinicians and academics worldwide, our treatment and harm reduction research enables optimal clinical practice and improves health outcomes. We are committed to developing new and innovative responses and evaluating existing programs in real-world settings and specific populations.

Epidemiology and emerging trends

Since the 1990s, NDARC’s internationally renowned epidemiological research quantifies and characterises alcohol and other drug use and harms in Australia and identifies emerging trends to provide a framework for policy responses and interventions that improve health and wellbeing.

Priority populations

We work in partnership with key population groups to ensure our research extends across and addresses the needs of diverse and priority populations. Through this work, we aim to understand better alcohol and other drug use and harms among these groups and identify tailored approaches to enhance health and wellbeing.

Criminal Justice System

Our research program focuses on the health of individuals who have contact with the forensic system. We explore opportunities for therapeutic outcomes in criminal justice settings and develop strategies to reduce drug-related harms.

Mental and physical comorbidities

Our research identifies and understands mental and physical comorbidities impacting people who use alcohol and other drugs, driving evidence-based recommendations to advance screening, detection, interventions, and implementation of effective and efficient treatment services.

National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs (NCCRED)

NCCRED brings together clinicians and researchers to detect and respond to trends in emerging drug health, including methamphetamine.

Priority Populations

NDARC’s research extends across diverse and priority populations to better understand alcohol and other drug use and harms among these groups, as well as identifying potential health responses.

Prevention and early intervention

NDARC's prevention and early intervention research identifies, develops, and evaluates effective strategies and interventions to prevent alcohol and other drug-related harms.

Big data and new technologies

Through routinely collected data spanning vital statistics, health service use, health registries, social services use and criminal justice system contacts, we access multiple data collections linked at the person-level to provide the most accurate picture of use and harms.

Drug policy

NDARC’s research extends across diverse and priority populations to better understand alcohol and other drug use and harms among these groups, as well as identifying potential health responses.