IRIS Continues Blooming: A Reflection on Six Years of Partnership  

As IRIS wraps up its initial 2020-2026 NIH grant and transitions to an overarching initiative for substance use recovery research, we pause with you to reflect on our collective contributions. We are excited to continue building a collaborative committed to community-academic partnerships and community-driven scientific inquiry.      

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By the numbers, IRIS funded 18 pilot research projects and graduated 17 research fellows. The funded projects and fellowship yielded impactful results with broad implications for our field. Our PEER project built research skills for peers, and awareness of peer recovery for behavioral health students and professionals, with significant knowledge gains measured across all groups. Our team published two journal articles (on community-academic partnerships and the fellowship’s impact) and supported research resulting in many others. We and our partners presented at numerous academic and practice conferences. Most importantly, we built the capacity for our community partners to better engage in research, evaluation, and quality improvement. And we supported social scientists to better partner with community organizations and residents. 

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The quotes below are a testament to our collective work and advancements we’ve made examining the effectiveness of practice, workforce development, and policy strategies, including those related to peer recovery and medications for opioid use disorder. 

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"IRIS has helped Voices of Hope demonstrate the impact of our peer-run services by validating the effectiveness of our Stages of Change model through meaningful research. Their analysis has also highlighted the cost-effectiveness of peer recovery support, showing how these services can reduce reliance on costly hospitalizations while helping individuals remain engaged across the continuum of care and achieve long-term recovery. With sincere gratitude, thank you, IRIS.”

Aaron Wright, General Programs Manager, On behalf of the the Voices of Hope team 

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"Peers know deeply that sharing our lived experience strengthens our recovery communities, and if we can empower peers to participate in the research world, our social science literature will reflect the lived realities of those at the center of mental health and substance use treatment. Those voices are crucial, and are also the most marginalized, ignored, and separated from the academic world. Trainings about research literacy for peers, like those developed by the PEER Project, provide immeasurable benefits to the peer workforce and the world of social science research."​

Sebastian McNary, Training Coordinator, Peer Training Services Department, On Our Own of Maryland 

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“The IRIS Fellowship showed the power of bringing peers, clinicians, and researchers together as equal partners. Each person brought a different lens, and together we created research projects stronger than one single perspective could have produced.”

​Heather Raley, Senior Behavioral Health Consultant, Mosaic Group 

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“IRIS and PEER have strengthened my ability to conduct community-engaged research from the ground up, enabling me to collaborate with community partners, recovery experts, and interdisciplinary researchers. Collaboration ensured the voices of those directly impacted were heard, leading to meaningful recovery outcomes and bridging gaps in care, practice, and research.”

​Doris Titus-Glover, Associate Professor, University of Maryland School of Nursing