In the Tobacco Policy Research and Evaluation Program, which took place between 1992 and 1996, investigators from diverse disciplines conducted policy research aimed at helping public and private policymakers adopt policies to reduce tobacco use, especially among children and youth.

Researchers came from medicine, health economics, political science, public health, sociology, psychology, criminal justice, and law.

Twenty-two research projects received funding through two rounds of grantmaking between 1993 and 1994. The program funded both well-recognized tobacco policy researchers and researchers who applied to tobacco their knowledge of other fields.

Key Results
An evaluation of the program by the Lewin Group, Fairfax, Va., reported the following.

• Research and researchers supported by the national program made material contributions to the national debate on tobacco policy.
• The program generated high quality research and achieved widespread dissemination of its findings, including articles in leading journals and testimony in court cases.
• The impact of the national program was heightened because the program supported research that was innovative and was performed by accomplished researchers, about 25 percent of whom were relatively new to tobacco policy research.
• The projects helped to identify priority topics for future tobacco policy investigations and stimulated follow-up research by the project directors themselves.
• The projects also coincided with an overall increase in the number of peer-reviewed policy articles related to tobacco over the past 11 years.
• As of the date of the evaluation report, January 1997, the studies supported under Tobacco Policy Research Program had produced 39 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 54 presentations at professional conferences.

Program Administration
Technical assistance and direction to the program were provided by the national program office located at Stanford University, under the leadership of Robert L. Rabin, J.D., Ph.D., (program director) at the law school and David G. Altman, Ph.D., (deputy director) then located at the medical school.

Funding
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Board of Trustees authorized the program in January 1992 for a total of up to $5 million.