About the Innovator

The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation (ITC) Project is an international collaboration of over 150 researchers in 29 countries covering over half of the world’s population and over two-thirds of the world’s tobacco users. A main objective of the ITC Project is to evaluate and understand the impact of tobacco control policies of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first-ever WHO treaty. Created in 2002 at the University of Waterloo, the ITC Project is the world’s largest tobacco research program, which has used innovative research methods to provide scientific evidence to governments and advocates to strengthen and accelerate the adoption of policies to combat tobacco smoking, which WHO recognizes as the world’s leading preventable cause of death. The ITC Project has published over 650 scientific articles, presented over 1300 scientific papers, and received over $100M in grant funding, including major grants from CIHR and US NIH. The ITC Project is globally recognized for advancing the science of population health, for its multidisciplinarity (involving surveys, economic analysis, biomarker studies, experimental studies, and modeling studies), and for its dissemination efforts, especially in low- and middle-income countries, which have led to stronger policies that have affected many millions. The ITC Project has also evolved to address leading-edge issues in global health, including a multi-method project on e-cigarettes and other new nicotine products among adults and youth, and adding new measures in 10 ITC countries to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on smoking and vaping.