sustainability report 2008 - Sustained engagement

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Active and sustained engagement and transparency about our research activities are crucial to achieving consensus with the external scientific community. In addition to the traditional methods of publishing our research in peer-reviewed scientific journals and presenting our research at international conferences, we are looking at new ways to communicate our research results.    

During 2008, we:

• Significantly increased transparency of our scientific research with the launch of www.bat-science.com ;
• Established a panel of international leading scientists, medical and public health professionals to help inform our scientific research programme;
• Increased our attendance at scientific conferences and the number of our peer-reviewed papers accepted for publication; and
• As members of the European Smokeless Tobacco Council (ESTOC), engaged with members of the European Parliament on the risk profile of smokeless tobacco products, including snus.

Our scientific website

www.bat-science.com  was launched in April 2008 and has attracted thousands of visits. It is designed to be ‘about science, by scientists, for scientists’ and demonstrates our commitment to increased engagement with scientific stakeholders.

External Scientific Panel

Our External Scientific Panel is a multidisciplinary team of 12 leading experts from scientific, medical and public health fields. This broad range of expertise expands and complements our existing skills. The range of disciplines covered by the panel members includes smoke chemistry, toxicology, physiologically based pharmacokinetic modelling, genetics, molecular techniques, lung cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, epidemiology and smokeless tobacco science.

Scientific publications and conferences

We attended scientific conferences and gave poster and oral presentations. These conferences provided important opportunities for us to engage with, and get feedback from, scientists involved in relevant fields of research. We also made significant progress in increasing the number of peer-reviewed scientific research papers accepted for publication in scientific journals – up from a handful just a few years ago to 22 in 2008.
   

   
In 2009, we will continue to:

• Develop and update www.bat-science.com ;
• Work with the External Scientific Panel to help inform our scientific research programme; and
• Present our scientific research at international conferences and publish it in peer-reviewed journals.