ICARA MEETING REPORT
International Confederation of ATOD Research Associations (ICARA)
Report of a meeting held in Chicago, USA, September 4-5, 2014
OVERVIEW
The first official meeting of the International Confederation of ATOD Research Associations (ICARA) took place in Chicago, Illinois, USA, September 4-5, 2014. The first day of the two-day meeting overlapped with the 15thannual meeting of the International Society of Addiction Journal Editors (SAJE).
A complete list of the persons in attendance is provided in the Appendix. On the two days of the meeting, 19 participants from 13 member-based research organizations in 10 countries participated along with representatives from the Pan /American Health Organization, the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The combined membership of the research organizations sending representatives to the meeting was estimated to be 6,800 individuals engaged in addiction research throughout the world.
The purpose of the meeting was to celebrate the incorporation of the new Confederation, elect a slate of officers, and to develop the organization’s first two year work plan.
The organizing committee is grateful to the following organizations for their support of meeting costs and travel expenses for several attendees: US National Institute on Drug Abuse, The University of Connecticut Department of Community Medicine, IOGT International
Day One
On the first day, 32 participants from ISAJE and ICARA as well as invited guests, shared the program. The first theme of the meeting was addressed by Sharon Wilsnack, who spoke about “Gender issues in the addiction field.” This was followed by a report from Tom Babor about the recent report of the European Association of Science Editors, whose Gender Policy Committee has recommended new guidelines for the reporting of gender issues in scientific research, and improvements in the gender representation of women in science. The implications of these recommendations for ISAJE and ICARA were discussed. A related theme was articulated by Jean O’Reilly on the implications of the new CONSORT guidelines for addiction journals and societies. A third theme was the inter-relationships between addiction science journals and addiction research societies, many of which own, sponsor and operate scientific journals. A panel of journal editors and society representatives(Katherine Graham (Canada), IsidoreObot (Nigeria), Andrea King (USA), and Michal Miovsky (Czech Republic) presented their views on the challenges and benefits of society sponsorship of scientific journals.
Richard Pates, President of ISAJE, reported on the ISAJE training workshops in research integrity, publication ethics and publication options that were conducted in Nigeria and South Korea during the past year. He also described the current status of the ISAJE mentoring scheme for junior investigators from low and middle income countries. In the future, both activities could be conducted in collaboration with ICARA. Other items on the agenda included a review of publication plans for the third edition of the book, Publishing Addiction Science, which will be revised by ISAJE but distributed in cooperation with ICARA.
At the end of the first day society representatives were asked to make short presentations about their societies, their membership, main activities and challenges. The attendees represented both large and small associations, some several decades old, others established during the 2000s. Scientific meetings were a common activity for all societies. For some associations this was an important source of funding. Several associations had journals but none mentioned the journal as a source of income. The relation to governments varied: some were supported by the government, some have official tasks as expert bodies. Translation of research was a main task for several associations. Two international associations mentioned that the growing share of members from low-and-middle income countries produces new challenges in internal communication and also for the translation of research findings. To keep membership and to have a stable budget are common problems for many.
Day Two
The second day started with a presentation of two models for videoconferences, one cheaper and less interactive (presented by Tom Kettunen) and one requiring more resources but also giving more interactive possibilities (presented by Raul Caetano). Information about these models will be posted on the forthcoming ICARA website.
Peter Vamos’ made a presentation of the history of the International Council on Alcohol and Addiction (ICAA), the oldest international addiction society. He emphasized the need for a leader of an international association with a broad scope to have good diplomatic skills. Funding sources should also be carefully considered as they often impact on the activities.
Tom Babor provided a brief overview of ICARA’s future funding challenges, suggesting that an initial offer from Cambridge University Press to designate ICARA as the recipient of royalties from the International Research Monographs in the Addictions, a series of volumes presenting important research developments in the areas of alcohol, illicit drugs, psychotropics, tobacco as well as gambling. One possible publication is a forthcoming book on gambling policies. The meeting supported warmly this suggestion. Several meeting participants suggested ideas for additional sources of revenue, including conference grants (e.g., NIDA, NIAAA, and European Commission).
Maristela Monteiro from PAHO talked about “Strengthening the Global ATOD Research Infrastructure: Perspectives from PAHO”. During her talk Dag Rekve attended from WHO headquarters in Geneva. She talked about translational issues, language borders as obstacles to get access to research funding and the resources PAHO provides that ICARA can perhaps link to them. She also discussed capacity building through collaborative research, shared protocols, shared consultancy costs and joint discussions with funders. Dag Rekve mentioned in his comment that ICARA could at a later point apply for a special formalized relationship with WHO as a nonstate actor.
This was followed by talks by Steve Gust from NIDA and Ralph Hingson from NIAA. Gust described the goals and activities, including grants, of NIDA’s international work in the fields of drug research, training and international exchange. So far, research collaboration has mostly been funded by awards to US researchers working in other countries. Gust emphasized NIDA’s continuing collaboration with ISAJE and saw potential in future cooperation with ICARA. He advertised for the International forum that will take place next year, June 12-15. Hingson mentioned inter alia that NIAAA has grants for conferences, which ICARA might apply for. Ralph Hingson spoke about NIAAA’s main international activities in the areas of FASD and HIV, their conference grant mechanism, the Fogerty Center for International Research and the APIS alcohol policy database that could be used as a model for international collaboration on alcohol policy research.
Next, there were three representatives from low and middle income countries: IsidoreObot from Nigeria, David Ndetei from Kenya, and Diana Rossia from Nigeria. Challenges and needs where ICARA might provide support were developing collaborative research projects and facilitation of networking. ICARA could be very useful as a forum where one can establish contacts. David Ndetei mentioned that it is not self-evident that researchers in low and middle income countries are interested in the wellbeing of the country, or that governments listen to researchers. Thus, it is important for health researchers, if they want to have an impact, to work with all kinds of stakeholders. One possibility is to collaborate on international projects, such as FASD. ICARA could educate governments on value of research to practical policy issues. He noted that “politicians do not see the light, they only feel the heat.”
Diana Rossi from Intercambios Civil Organization in Argentina explained how her organization engages in research, advocacy training and community interventions, including collaborations with NIDA on grants and Fogarty on exchanges. There is a pressing need in Latin America for support from internal or external sources to build infrastructure.
The panel was very successful in drawing attention to the enormous problems that are prevalent or emerging in areas of the world where infrastructure and research capacity are weak or nonexistent. The panel’s conclusions begged the question: To what extent can ICARA facilitate advocacy for research, knowledge transfer, international collaboration, and mutual support?
Sungsoo Chun, Director, Center for Addiction Science Specialties, Sahmyook University, Korea, described how CASS could collaborate with ICARA/ISAJE. The Korean Ministry of Education has provided government support for a new occupational training program that will focus on internet gaming, gambling, alcohol and drug abuse. The training program will focus on evidence-based practice through a consortium of the following academic departments: pharmacy, nursing, counseling, physical therapy, and health management. The aim is to produce addiction professionals who will address addiction problems through evidence-based practice and continuing international research collaborations. CASS would like to develop a more formal collaboration with the ICARA/ISAJE to conduct joint research, training and conferences for the advancement of education, research and international exchanges.
Richard Saitz’ presentation discussed the problems with conflict of interest and industry funding for research, with concrete examples from several research fields. He described how the International Network on Brief Interventions for Alcohol and Other Drugs is in the process of developing a comprehensive policy to deal with COI issues at all levels of the organization.
Following these contributions, the attendees divided into smaller groups to discuss the future work of ICARA under three main headings: 1) education and training, 2) information exchange and 3) dissemination and management. The three groups reported back as follows:
Education and training: a)It was suggested that ICARA produce a document for public policy makers with the core arguments for why ATOD research is important; b)to educate the public about ICARA, it was suggested that an editorial be written about the meeting, to be published in addiction journals; c) ICARA should facilitate the sharing between societies of COI, gender and ethics policies and public policy statements and advice about how to advocate for research; d) ICARA can have a role in advising societies on how to train researchers to do research and inform them about available training possibilities; e) ICARA can facilitate training about publication issues and ethical issues.
Information sharing and dissemination:a)Societies can share their policies on how to exclude members known to have violated legal or ethical regulations; b) the sharing of information about meeting policies, especially sponsorship would be helpful; c)Sharing of information about bylaws; d) successful advocacy for research funding on both policy and treatment could be shared; e) relations between society, journal and publisher seem to differ and often are somewhat unclear: sharing of information could again be helpful; f) information about funding sources would be important.
Managing ICARA:A list of things to do for the board was produced:
a)develop a mailing list;
b)send out a report of the meeting;
c) ensure that we get a website, where we can post the ICARA bylaws, mission statement, members list, meeting notes, application form for membership and news;
d) recruitment of new members and affiliate members;
e)a twitter account is probably necessary;
f) a financial plan should be developed for ICARA including member fees, the IRMA book series, NIAAA, NIDA, EU/funding, EMCDDA, and The Volkswagen foundation.
TheICARA Annual General Meeting was then held with the following attendees: Tom Babor, Gerhard Buhringer, IsidorObot, Diana Rossi, Sharon Wilsnack, MatejKosir, Sungsoo Chun, Richard Saitz, Don Ziegler, Niamh Fitzgerald, Raul Caetano and Kerstin Stenius and Andrea King.
1.The meeting was opened at 3.33 pm and it was noted that the call had gone out more than 60 days before.
2.Kerstin Stenius (interim president) gave a report about activities, which included the registration of ICARA in Finland, the recruitment of attendees to the Chicago meeting and the planning of the meeting program in a group with Tom Babor, Ted Cicero and Raul Caetano. ICARA has a temporary Finnish bank account (a proper one will be opened during the next weeks), but no money.
3.The reports from the working groups during the Chicago meeting were presented as an activity plan. It was decide to have another meeting in 2015, either in conjunction with the next ISAJE meeting in Budapest (30.8-2.9) or at the GAPC meeting in Edinburgh, October 7-9.
4.It was decided that annual membership fees should be 75 and 150 dollars, to be paid according to financial resources of the member association. The same fees were decided for affiliate members.
5.The meeting elected Gerhard Bühringer as President, Tom Babor as Vice President, Kerstin Stenius as Secretary and Treasurer and Diana Rossi, Sungsoo Chun and IsidoreObot as members of the board. Sharon Wilsnack and Richard Saitz were elected auditors and Niamh Fitzgerald extra auditor
6.The meeting was concluded at approximately 4 pm.
Attendees:
Ralph Hingson, International Council of Drugs and Traffic Safety and NIAAA (USA)
Sungsoo Chun, Korean Association of Alcohol Researchers (South Korea)
Gerhard Bühringer, Deutsche GesellschaftfürSuchtforschung und Suchttherapie, European Federation of Addiction Societies (EUFAS) and European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Abuse (Germany)
Andrea King, Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) (USA)
Richard Saitz, Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA) (USA)
Don Ziegler, American Public Health Association (APHA), ATOD-section (USA)
Niamh Fitzgerald, International Network on Brief Interventions for Alcohol & Other Drugs (INEBRIA) (Scotland)
Sharon Wilsnack, KettilBruun Society for Social and Epidemiological Research on Alcohol (USA)
MatejKosir, European Society of Prevention Research (Slovenia)
IsidorObot, CRISA, Nigerian Society for Substance Abuse Professionals (Nigeria)
Diana Rossi, IntercambiosAsociación Civil (Argentina)
Raul Caetano, INEBRIA Latina and Brazilian Association for the Study of Alcohol and Other Drugs (ABEAD) (Brazil)
Tom Babor, International Society of Addiction Journal Editors (ISAJE) (USA)
Peter Vamos, International Council on Alcohol and Addictions (Canada)
Steve Gust, National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) (USA)
MaristelaMonteiro , Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) (USA)
Kerstin Stenius, ISAJE (Finland)