DPMP: The Drug Policy Modelling Program

The DPMP is based at the University of New South Wales and was established in 2004 with funding from the Colonial Foundation Trust. The Burnet Institute is one of DPMP’s collaborating partners.

Objective

DPMP aims to improve Australian drug policy by generating new evidence; translating that evidence into policy-relevant information; studying how policy actually gets made and evaluating policy processes.

Burnet contributes to DPMP goals through Associate Professor Paul Dietze’s involvement as a Chief Investigator and his work developing longitudinal epidemiological data on street-based injecting drug users in Melbourne.

Trevor King, the Deputy Director of DPMP is also based at Burnet. His role includes the translation of research findings into improved policy and practice.

Timeline

2006–2011.

Approach

All DPMP work is underpinned by a focus on capacity-building:

• encouraging scientists from other areas to work in the illicit drugs domain
• providing consultancy and support to policy makers to improve their use of research evidence
• working in partnership with existing drug research centres and teams across Australia
• bringing international expertise to Australia
• disseminating its work to researchers, policy makers and the public.