Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Programme

(THRSP)

The K∙A∙C Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Programme is now receiving applications.

Apply for this unique opportunity, build your skills and expertise, and join a global network taking action to reduce smoking-related deaths and disease.

With eight million lives lost each year, smoking is the leading preventable cause of death worldwide. It’s a public health crisis with over a billion people still smoking every day. Eighty per cent live in low and middle-income countries where resources to combat smoking and provide treatment are scarce. Current tobacco control measures are inadequate given the scale of the challenge.

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Tobacco harm reduction (THR) is a potentially life-saving intervention for millions of people across the world. To those who use high-risk tobacco products, like cigarettes and some oral tobaccos, it offers the chance to switch to a range of safer nicotine products (SNP) that pose significantly fewer risks to health. The effectiveness of the approach builds on decades of success with earlier harm reduction initiatives.

Sign up for our short e-learning course, Understanding Tobacco Harm Reduction to find out more. Completion of the course is a pre-application requirement for the main THRSP.

K∙A∙C launched this unique professional development opportunity in 2018 to support passionate new researchers and educators and health communicators into tobacco harm reduction. Since then, we have supported 164 people from 49 countries across six continents to develop their skills, knowledge and capacity in the field.

Thinking of applying? Read some of our Scholar’s inspirational stories and find out about the Programme’s global impacts.

Our Scholars are undertaking the culturally and contextually appropriate research and education activities needed to globalise tobacco harm reduction, working to reduce smoking and risky tobacco use in the communities where the need is greatest. Our Scholars are taking tobacco harm reduction into the future.

Have you got what it takes to join them?

Over the course of a year, Scholars complete a THR-related project of their own design, with the support of a bespoke mentoring programme. Alongside this individual work, the THRSP grounds successful applicants in the theory and practice of tobacco harm reduction. Scholars form a community with their cohort, and learn together in online seminars with expert speakers, by completing modules on our bespoke e-learning platform, the THR Academy, and through attendance at in-person events, including the Induction Programme, set to take place in Istanbul, Turkey.

Scholars have access to a stipend of up to $12,000 and expenses for travel to events are covered by the Programme. For more information, see ‘What practical support does the Scholarship offer?’.

The THRSP is now accepting applications for first level Scholarship places. This is a 12-month programme. There are 20 places available.

If successful, you can expect considerable input from the THRSP. The support package on offer includes:

  • a stipend of up to $12,000 to undertake your project;
  • assistance in honing your proposal post-submission;
  • travel to participate in a Scholars’ Induction Programme, plus accommodation and per diems for the duration of this event;
  • an in-depth online course in the theory and practice of THR, undertaken alongside the THR seminar programme, featuring sessions presented by leading global experts on key issues in harm reduction;
  • enrolment onto the Mentoring scheme, with a named expert mentor (read programme highlights);
  • ongoing support from the Scholarship Programme Team, including assistance with problem solving – both practical and academic;
  • membership of the THRSP alumni support network, connecting past and current scholars for peer support, collaboration, and continued learning.

Please note that applications from low and middle-income countries are prioritised.

We welcome applications from any potential Scholars with an interest in THR. This includes:

  • people intending to enter into the field of research into THR and/or public health;
  • harm reduction professionals;
  • postgraduate students;
  • researchers and scientists;
  • medical professionals;
  • safer nicotine product consumers;
  • writers and journalists;
  • digital and social media professionals;
  • film makers and other audio-visual professionals.

Note: Scholarships cannot be awarded to employees or their immediate family members of organisations that receive grants from Global Action to End Smoking (GA).

We want your proposals for a tobacco harm reduction project that you’re excited by and passionate about. We are open to lots of different kinds of activity, but your project must support one or more aims of the THRSP:

  • Increase research and practice capacity in THR;
  • Expand the evidence-base for new technologies and products which contribute to reducing smoking and improving both individual and population health;
  • Introduce new thinkers, new ideas and new methods to tobacco harm reduction;
  • Improve risk communication using social media and new technologies to disseminate information, particularly to isolated groups and communities;
  • Target locations and populations where current activities and resources are limited, especially in low and middle-income countries where the need to build capacity is greatest.

Here are some examples of the types of project proposals we’d like to see:

  • conducting and publishing research on THR, including scoping national priorities and/or studies on THR products;
  • improving your understanding of science and science skills by links with, or placement within, a research team or THR organisation;
  • designing and initiating an intervention project to enhance public and/or professional understanding of THR and related projects;
  • developing a THR intervention project within a health and social care setting;
  • organising workshops and training events on THR;
  • forming an organisation to communicate and educate about THR;
  • developing science communication skills related to THR;
  • making and disseminating a film(s) or other media resources to improve understanding about THR;
  • examining how LMIC countries might overcome challenges they face in implementing THR initiatives.

Projects and activities that either focus on or involve lobbying are not eligible for consideration. "Lobbying" means working to influence governments/elected representatives/officials to change or support a specific policy. This exclusion is an important element of our grant agreement with Global Action to End Smoking, which supports the THRSP.

If you have an idea, but are unsure about how to take it forward, or wonder whether it will satisfy our criteria, please contact scholarships@kachange.eu.

First, you should complete our short, open access e-learning course, Understanding Tobacco Harm Reduction. Successful completion of the course is a pre-application requirement and will be checked before your application is reviewed. It will also help inform your proposal.

We are looking for:

  • a well thought-out, clearly structured and original Scholarship project proposal;
  • demonstration of competence to undertake the project;
  • a commitment to complete the project within 11-months and submit your final report;
  • the ability to design, plan, organise and oversee all stages of the Scholarship project;
  • working knowledge of English (spoken and written).

We want to hear about you and your ideas in your own words, not in generic phrases from a large language model. All applications are read closely by K·A·C personnel; applications generated wholly or substantially using artificial intelligence (AI) tools will not be considered.

Applications will close on January 11th at 23:59 GMT. Results will be informed to all applicants in February 2026.

The Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Programme is a K•A•C project delivered with the help of a grant from the Global Action to End Smoking (GA). GA is an independent, U.S. nonprofit 501(c)(3) grantmaking organization that funds and empowers Health & Science Research, Cessation Education, and Agricultural Transformation designed to end the smoking epidemic and related death and disease.

Scholars must acknowledge in any outputs from their project that funding for their Scholarship was provided by Knowledge•Action•Change (K•A•C).