Located in the NIH Office of Disease Prevention (ODP), the Tobacco Regulatory Science Program (TRSP) coordinates the trans-NIH collaborative effort with the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) to conduct research to support its regulatory activities over tobacco products.

With the passage of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act), the FDA acquired the authority to regulate the manufacture, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products in order to protect public health. Within the framework of the Tobacco Control Act, the NIH and FDA formed an interagency partnership to foster tobacco regulatory research. The NIH has the infrastructure for the solicitation, review, and management of research, and several NIH Institutes and Centers have long supported tobacco-related research as part of their missions. The FDA has expertise in tobacco regulatory science and the authority and resources to support research responsive to FDA’s regulatory authority. NIH biomedical, behavioral and social sciences research supported via funding from FDA will provide the scientific evidence needed to better inform FDA’s regulatory authorities.