The Success of the Research Network

The success of the Network will be measured in a variety of scientific and other arenas:

• by the degree to which new paradigms and findings emergent from the Network frame the research questions being asked in the field about tobacco use and dependence and the use, abuse, and dependence on other drugs;
• by the number of senior and junior scientists who make nicotine and tobacco the focus of their research careers;
• by the amount of interest in and efforts made to use transdisciplinary networks as a means of understanding complex phenomena which cannot adequately be understood by traditional funding and research mechanisms; and, most importantly,
• by the incorporation of significant new understandings about the causes of transitions in the use and dependence on tobacco into new and more potent prevention and treatment strategies and interventions.

We know there are multiple pathways to tobacco dependence that are manifested at genetic, biological, psychological, social, environmental, societal, and cultural levels. This Network will map these etiologic pathways for successive generations of scientists and practitioners to use in reducing the toll of tobacco dependence on our society and its citizens, and in promoting the health of the population.