The North Charles Research and Planning Group (NCRPG) conducts research on substance abuse epidemiology and health services. Formerly know as the National Technical Center for Substance Abuse Needs Assessment (NTC), NCRPG was established to provide technical support to states conducting studies to meet the requirements of the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant applications and other planning activities. More recently, NCRPG has been a substance abuse research firm that conducted State Treatment Needs Assessment Program studies for Rhode Island, Alaska, Colorado, North Dakota, and Montana. Those studies included substance use surveys of recently incarcerated prisoners and homeless persons and social indicator studies. NCRPG developed a social indicator model of interstate substance abuse treatment needs that includes both drug and alcohol components. NCRPG's latest initiatives focus on prescription drug abuse.

NCRPG is a division of the Harvard Medical School's Department of Psychiatry at Cambridge Hospital . It is administratively funded through the North Charles Foundation. The group's director, Dr. William E. McAuliffe , has studied drug abuse epidemiology for over 30 years and has over 75 published journal articles, books, chapters, and reviews on the subject to his credit.