Partners With Tobacco Use Research Centers (the Partners Initiative), a national program launched by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in 1999, helped translate the research findings of the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Centers (TTURCs) into policy and practice.

TTURCS were established in 1998 by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), both part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to integrate scientific studies of tobacco use, prevention and treatment across disciplines. RWJF collaborated closely with the NIH in developing the TTURC initiative, drawing on the successes and lessons learned from its pioneering transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Etiology Research Network (TERN). See Grant Results on TERN for more information.

Seven universities or university partnerships received initial NIH funding to establish Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Centers: Brown University/Miriam Hospital; University of California (UC) at Irvine; University of Minnesota; University of Pennsylvania (Penn)/Georgetown University; University of Southern California; University of Wisconsin Medical School; and Yale University.

RWJF made grants to five of the centers (Brown, UC at Irvine, Penn/Georgetown, Wisconsin and Yale) to help them extend their basic and clinical research on tobacco use into the policy arena. All seven centers received RWJF communications grants to encourage collaboration among researchers within and across centers, and to disseminate research findings to wider audiences.

Key Results
According to Robin J. Mermelstein, Ph.D., and her staff who managed the national program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health, the Partners Initiative:

• Helped the TTURCs build bridges between basic laboratory science and clinical applications or epidemiological studies and address "next-step" application questions.
• Enhanced researchers' awareness of the policy relevance of their work and brought new investigators into the field of tobacco policy research.
• Brought together researchers and key stakeholders, such as community members, health care providers, geneticists and psychologists, in collaborative teams at several of the centers.
• Helped many of the centers attract additional policy-related funding, promoting programs of tobacco policy research that were sustainable over time.
• Convinced a number of researchers about the benefits of communicating their work to broad audiences. Four of the centers were particularly successful at disseminating scientific findings beyond traditional outlets, reaching new audiences with news releases, policy briefs, science summary reports, news conferences and meetings for key stakeholders and policy-makers.
• Facilitated cross-center collaboration and disseminated research results. The national program office developed publications, launched a Web site that averaged some 4,000 to 5,000 visitors a month in 2006 and 2007, and organized and led conferences.

Program Management
The University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health served as the national program office for the program. Mermelstein was the director; Kim Kobus served as deputy director and Prabhu Ponkshe at HealthMatrix directed communications. Ponkshe has also directed the communications for RWJF's Substance Abuse Policy Research Program.

Funding
RWJF's Board of Trustees authorized the program in April 1999 for up to $14 million. The amount was later reduced by $1.492 million in October 2003 creating the Tobacco Reallocation Fund. RWJF made 30 grants totaling more than $12.263 million from 1999 to 2007.