Addiction is one of the five areas the University is addressing as part of its Driven to Discover campaign.

By: Eliana Schreiber

As a growing opioid epidemic gains urgency and national attention, the University of Minnesota is using an online campaign and social media to put its addiction research at the forefront.

Every year, the University works with the Office of the Provost and the University of Minnesota Foundation to choose areas of leadership within the University to promote in its Driven to Discover campaign.

This year, the University has included addiction as one of five areas to highlight. The others include abolishing hunger, closing the opportunity gap, promoting healthy aging and protecting human rights.

“Addiction was one of the areas because, again, it’s an area that the University is trying to tackle from many different disciplines to find solutions to,” said University Services Account Services Director Laura Johnson.

The administration chose to focus on addiction specifically because members felt it was a relevant topic, particularly opioid addiction, Johnson said.

The campaign focuses on the research of five University professors, who are taking different approaches to finding solutions to the opioid epidemic.

Johnson said the issue of opioid addiction, and addiction in general, affects the lives of many Minnesotans. The campaign aims to focus on areas where the University is a leader and that also impact people across the state, she said.

“What’s important about our work is that while we may start to focus on a particular area, the researchers are always looking for how that can be expanded or adapted to improve lives in other aspects,” she said.