On September 26, 2023, the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced funding awards for seven organizations within Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS).

These new funding awards are the third round of TCORS, a long-standing component of the Tobacco Regulatory Science Program, or TRSP, a trans-HHS collaborative research effort between NIH and FDA, which fosters regulatory research. 

The collective expertise in tobacco regulatory science, as well as biomedical, behavioral, and social science research supported by funding from FDA, provides the scientific evidence needed to better inform FDA’s regulatory authorities. Made up of scientists with a broad range of expertise (e.g., epidemiology, economics, toxicology, addiction, and marketing), they generate critical research that informs the FDA’s regulation of tobacco products.

The third cohort (TCORS 3.0) was awarded to seven institutions:

• The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH)
• The Pennsylvania State University (Hershey, Pennsylvania)
• University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)
• University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY)
• University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)
• The University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC)
• Yale University (New Haven, CT)

Additionally, FDA and NIH announced the continuation of the Center for Coordination of Analysis, Science, Enhancement, and Logistics (CASEL) in Tobacco Regulatory Science administered through a cooperative agreement under award number 2-U54-DA046060-06. New to CASEL 2.0 is an Opportunity Fund that will support time-sensitive, rapid response projects to which extramural investigators may apply.