Vision

Promote scientific excellence and evidence-based public health in Syria and the Arab world.

Mission

To forge a sustainable institution which draws on a wide range of complimentary expertise and resources from developed and developing nations and serves as a model of scientific excellence and commitment to the health of people in Syria and the Arab world

Objectives

2008-2012

1- Understanding adolescent tobacco use patterns and determinants.
2- Examining waterpipe toxicant exposure, dependence, and risk.
3- Testing and integrating effective smoking cessation interventions.
4- Building regional tobacco control research capacity.

2002-2007

1- Optimize methods for studying tobacco use and local smoking practices
2- Describe, in a clinical laboratory established in Aleppo, the subjective, physiological, and behavioral effects of smoking systems that are popular in, and in some cases unique to, the ME, such as narghile.
3- Test a primary care smoking cessation intervention tailored to the Syrian environment based on data from epidemiological and clinical laboratory research.
4- Train Syrian tobacco researchers so that the expertise and resources necessary for sustaining and expanding the SCTS will be in place locally at the project's end.