Network Administration
- Coordinating Center
- Steering Committee
- Network Members

Research Priorities

Learn More About ITEN

Goals, Objectives, Methods and Activities
The goal of the International tobacco evidence network (ITEN) is to promote and maintain a formal network of economists, epidemiologists, social scientists and other tobacco control experts who are able to provide rapid, policy-relevant research on country-level, regional or international tobacco control issues. Specific objectives are to enhance global policy-relevant research capacity by:

• Developing an internet-based toll for sharing information, data, and best practices;
• Enhancing research capacity in regional collaborating centers currently being identified in South East Asia, in Central and Eastern Europe, in South Africa, and in Central America;
• Providing a peer review function, designing and organizing workshops on specific research topic, providing opportunity for distant learning, and disseminating primary research; and
• Fostering interdisciplinary research using peer-reviewed research protocols on priority topics.

Methods and Specific Activities
The network facilitates communication among researchers and tobacco control experts. For example, it organizes meetings of experts discussing research priorities and informs its members about new funding and fellowship opportunities by means of members' listserv and web page. It assists local researchers in having an access to technical experts so that they can consult their research plans and/or submit results to a constructive peer review. Another role of ITEN is to disseminate existing research-based knowledge though the ITEN web side and by means of ITEN research seminars and workshops. ITEN also organizes and monitors tobacco control research activities with an international aspect. The ITEN web site provides numerous reference materials on the subject of tobacco controls, links to relevant information resource for research and an opportunity for ITEN members to exchange information and interact with each other. The network particularly encourages colleagues in low- and middle-income countries to undertake interdisciplinary analyses of tobacco and tobacco control, provide them with both technical and strategic advice, help them to identify research priorities, and promotes regional cooperation among them. Particular attention is given to encouraging young scientists in developing countries to become tobacco control research experts. Importantly, ITEN aims to attract already-trained economists, epidemiologists and other social scientists into tobacco control research. ITEN can enhance their skills and content-specific knowledge that are required for tobacco control. ITEN research currently focuses on economics and epidemiology, with a conscious effort to expand to other behavioral disciplines.

ITEN has identified four regional centers in low- and middle-income countries that communicated their need for technical assistance and agreed to cooperate with ITEN. With the assistance of ITEN experts each of the centers developed a set of policy relevant priority topics they want to focus on short- to medium-run. ITEN Coordinating Center is in regular contacts with the regional centers by e-mail, conference calls, and occasional meetings. The network has also provided small seed grants to the regional centers to initiate a local specific research project. The active ITEN collaborating centers, their research topics and key contact persons are:

• Applied Fiscal Research Center, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Research priorities: comprehensive analyses of the economics of tobacco controls; effects of advertising restrictions on advertising agencies. Key contact: Corne van Walebeek.
• School of Law and Public Administration, The University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland. Research priorities: examination of price responsiveness; effect of advertising ban on smoking behavior; ETS and children's health; smuggling; regional analyses in Eastern and Central Europe. Key contact: Christina Ciecierski.
• National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Mexico. Research priorities: excise taxes on tobacco products - implications for fiscal, social, and public health policies; price elasticity of cigarette demand. Key contacts: Mauricio Hernandez and Raydel Valdés Salgado.
• South East Asian Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA). Research priorities: policy relevant research focusing on impact of tobacco tax increases, on relationship between smoking and poverty, on costs of smoking, and on smuggling, among others. Key contact: Menchi G. Velasco

Plans to develop additional regional technical center are also on the way. They are being identified through consultations with key participants from the region and would most likely be housed at a regional university or a research institute. ITEN has established a collaboration the Open Society Institute (OSI) supported by the Soros Foundation to support OSI activities in the Former Soviet Republics and in South Easter Europe. The network is also constantly networking to identify individual researchers interested to collaborate with ITEN to foster tobacco control research in their geographic region. As a result, ITEN is working with a group in India on an epidemiological project and has established contacts that will be instrumental in identifying local economists for future research activities in the region. It is hoped that regional centers will gradually develop their own technical expertise for tobacco related research and will provide technical assistance locally.

Despite of its short existence ITEN has already began connecting important players in the worldwide tobacco research community. They consist of both individuals and organizations/institutions. The Network cooperates with scholars from universities and research centers in USA, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, Canary Islands, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. It has established and maintains contacts with the World Bank, the International Union Against Cancer, the Strategic Management of Development Division of OECD, the Research for International Tobacco Control (RITC) organization from Canada, WHO, and CDC.

By facilitating communication, providing access to data and informing on best practices, ITEN is helping to overcome major obstacles in advancing regional tobacco control research agendas in low- and middle-income countries.