About Us

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at NIH has long been recognized as a national leader in research on harmful drinking among college students.  NIAAA developed www.CollegeDrinkingPrevention.gov as a one-stop resource for comprehensive research-based information on issues related to alcohol abuse and binge drinking among college students, with online tools for parents, students, administrators and more. 

In 2002, the NIAAA Task Force on College Drinking turned a national spotlight on this important public health issue. The reports of the Task Force, which were mailed to every college president in the United States, have been influential in the college alcohol and other drug (AOD) field.  Statistics first introduced by this group are now used routinely to convey the magnitude of college drinking consequences, supporting research papers have been cited more than 2000 times in the scientific literature, and the NIAAA college website has received more than 150 million hits.

In 2007, as ongoing research continued to yield new information, NIAAA developed a research update for college administrators and student life staff. 

In 2011, to help bridge the gap between research that continues to identify promising interventions and the practice of developing real-world campus programs to address alcohol-related problems, NIAAA joined forces with a group of informed and passionate college presidents who are actively addressing these issues on their campuses. The presidents participating in the invitation-only NIAAA College Presidents Working Group to address harmful student drinking advise NIAAA on both the types of information they need and the ways they want to receive it, resulting in new products and messages for multiple audiences.

The ultimate goal of the NIAAA’s efforts in college drinking research is to share science-based information in accessible and practical ways to give college administrators, parents, and concerned students a foundation for alcohol intervention activities.