Career Development

A high priority of the Pain/Opioid CORE is to facilitate career development of early career VA investigators and investigators new to pain or opioid-related research through collaboration and professional development activities.


Career Development Workgroup

The VA Pain/Opioid Research Career Development workgroup is open to VA investigators at any stage of their career. The mission of the workgroup is to facilitate connections and dialogue between established researchers and early career VA investigators interested in pain and opioid-related research and to expand the professional networks of members.

Meetings are held via Webex at 4:00 pm ET the third Monday of every month (some exceptions due to holidays).

Meeting topics rotate among career development topics; presentations by early career researchers and CORE Rapid Start Funding awardees; and each meeting includes time for open questions and discussion. 

Pain/Opioid CORE Career Development VA Intranet Site (requires a VA account & workgroup membership)

Rapid Start Funding

The purpose of the Pain/Opioid CORE Rapid Start program is to support research in priority areas within pain/opioid research. These are small awards intended to fund projects of up to one year that are consistent with CORE priorities and are likely to meaningfully inform future applications for funding as a VA study (e.g., CDA, IIR, Service-Directed Research, QUERI project) or answer priority questions (e.g., secondary analysis). The next Rapid Start Funding RFA is expected in December 2023. 

Priority is given to early career investigators. Learn more.

Pain/Opioid CORE Workgroups

Early career VA investigators are encouraged to participate in Pain/Opioid CORE Workgroups.

These time-limited, project-focused workgroups provide opportunities to network and collaborate with other VA researchers. Learn more.