Global ScholarshipProgramme Seeks Tobacco Harm Reduction Leaders of Tomorrow – One Week Left to Apply

Key Points:

• ·Open to participants from all professional backgrounds, K·A·C’s Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Programme is seeking its eighth cohort 
• ·Deadline for applications 31 July 2025, with 25 entry-level places available 
• ·Bespoke mentoring, grounding in policy and practice and stipend offered to support Scholars who complete individually designed projects  

A global programme helping to produce the tobacco harm reduction leaders of the future is making its final call for applications. In its first seven years, the Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Programme (THRSP) has had an unprecedented impact around the world, developing the careers of 119 Scholars from 42 countries across six continents.

Run by UK-based public health agency Knowledge•Action•Change (K•A•C) with the support of a grant from Global Action to End Smoking, the THRSP is currently looking for its eighth cohort of Scholars, and there are now just two weeks left to apply. Successful candidates will receive a 12-month bespoke mentoring programme to undertake a THR-related project of their own design, plus up to $12k in financial support.

Applications will be accepted until 31/07/25, but before submitting their project ideas, all applicants must first complete the short online course Understanding Tobacco Harm Reduction. The course, which is designed to be completed over two to three hours, was developed with contributions from a range of experts in public health and tobacco harm reduction, including researchers, medical professionals, and educators dedicated to promoting health and well-being.

What is tobacco harm reduction?

Tobacco harm reduction (THR) is a potentially life-saving intervention for millions of people across the world. To those who currently use high-risk tobacco products, like combustible and some oral tobaccos, it offers the chance to switch to a range of safer nicotine products that pose fewer risks to their health. These include nicotine vapes, heated tobacco products, snus and nicotine pouches.

Why was the Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Programme created?

The THRSP was launched to increase research and practice capacity in tobacco harm reduction in target locations and populations where current activities and resources are limited. The THRSP has a particular focus on low and middle-income countries (LMIC), where the need for new approaches to tobacco-related harms are especially acute. It aims to introduce new thinkers, new ideas and new methods to tobacco harm reduction, as well as increasing the use of social media and new technologies to disseminate accurate information about the potential for safer nicotine products to reduce the global number of smoking-related deaths, which currently total 8 million every year.

The THRSP achieves its goals in a number of ways. Applicants to the Programme must devise a project that will improve understanding of, or communication about, tobacco harm reduction appropriate for their country, region or personal area of expertise. Current and former Scholars have published original research in peer-reviewed scientific journals, created national and international tobacco harm reduction networks, developed smoking cessation toolkits for healthcare practitioners, and produced new media resources ranging from articles and films, to radio shows and podcasts.

Chimwemwe Ngoma from Malawi graduated from the Programme as part of its first cohort, and now manages the Scholarship Programme on behalf of K·A·C. He is proud of his experience both participating in and now leading the Programme. “My journey through the Scholarship Programme showed me first-hand the value that tobacco harm reduction can bring to communities like my own. Since joining the THRSP Team, I’ve watched Scholars from six continents gain the knowledge, confidence and skills to deliver a huge variety of projects, all of which share the goal of reducing tobacco-related death and disease. I can’t wait to see what this year’s applicants will submit, and I am looking forward to getting to know our new cohort and supporting their aims and ambitions.”

The new cohort of Scholars will benefit from the knowledge and experience of Ethan Nadelmann, the founder and former executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, who is Patron of the THRSP. On taking up his patronage, Nadelmann said: “I'm honoured to be a Patron of this Scholarship Programme, not just because I've met so many stellar recipients but also because it's so essential given the resistance of World Health Organization (WHO), powerful philanthropists and so many governments to tobacco harm reduction.”

So what happens next?

If you have an idea for a project exploring an aspect of tobacco harm reduction, the THRSP invites you to apply for your place on the 2025-26 Programme before the deadline for applications on 31/07/25. Prior to applying and submitting their project ideas, potential Scholars must complete the short online course Understanding Tobacco Harm Reduction, which can be accessed both at the applications portal and directly here.

For further information visit www.thrsp.net

Media enquiries: oliver@kachange.eu

THRSP enquiries: chimwemwe@kachange.eu

About us: Knowledge·Action·Change (K·A·C) promotes harm reduction as a key public health strategy grounded in human rights. The team has over forty years of experience of harm reduction work in drug use, HIV, smoking, sexual health, and prisons. K·A·C also runs the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR) which maps the development of tobacco harm reduction and the use, availability and regulatory responses to safer nicotine products, as well as smoking prevalence and related mortality, in over 200 countries and regions around the world. For all publications and live data, visit https://gsthr.org

Our funding: The Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Programme is funded with a grant from Global Action to End Smoking (formerly known as Foundation for a Smoke-Free World), an independent, US non-profit 501(c)(3) grant-making organisation, accelerating science-based efforts worldwide to end the smoking epidemic. Global Action has no role in the planning or execution of this project.