Substance use disorders are not only one of the most significant consequences of violence and neglect in childhood, but, if parents are concerned, they are also one of the most important risk factors for maltreatment against children. Interdisciplinary research activities are necessary to identify the relationships between early adversity and substance use disorders, to provide effective treatments for patients with comorbid posttraumatic disorders and to inform preventive approaches. To our knowledge, the CANSAS network is the largest European research initiative in this field so far. It is expected that the findings of the network will lead to more sophisticated models regarding the role of early adversity for substance use disorders. First results confirmed the important role of emotions and their regulation and brought new insights into the details of this relationship (Wolff et al., 2016). The findings of CANSAS could thus provide a basis for early intervention approaches in children and adolescents with a history of CAN, and for specific ER trainings adapted to the needs of patients with SUD. The results of the studies on a treatment model for SUD patients with PTSD will bring forward the discussion about promising treatments for this group in European SUD settings. This includes the question of which patients can benefit from present-focused models like SS and which patients might need (additional) trauma-focused approaches. Finally, the findings on trainings of practitioners and screening tools will contribute to both, improving the assessment of CAN in patients with SUD and breaking the transgenerational cycles of adversity through a better assessment of CAN by parents with SUD. There are manifold relationships between CAN and SUD, and the network will only be able to make a limited contribution to this rapidly developing field of research. Nevertheless, it can be expected that the broad perspective of CANSAS and its interdisciplinary approach, that brings together experts in the fields of childhood abuse and neglect, substance use disorders, as well as health services research, will contribute to a better understanding of some relevant questions that might help to bring forward the idea of ‘trauma-informed care’ (Brown et al., 2013) in European addiction services.