The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Cancer Institute will award grants of up to $200,000 for research on the efficacy of so-called "reduced-risk" tobacco products, both smoked and smokeless.

The Testing Tobacco Products Promoted to Reduce Harm grants will fund multidisciplinary research projects run by for-profits, nonprofits, governments, or schools.

"The tobacco industry is currently promoting some new products with claims that they are less harmful or less addictive because these products purportedly deliver lower amounts of toxic, carcinogenic, and/or addictive agents to the user compared with conventional products," the grant announcement notes. "However, to date, the scientific evidence is insufficient to evaluate whether these new products actually reduce the users exposure or risk for tobacco-related diseases.

"The key research question of this [announcement] is, 'Do potential reduced-exposure tobacco products provide a truly, less-harmful alternative to conventional tobacco products, both on the individual and population level?'"

For more details, see the full grant announcement online.