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Strategic cross-national meeting on alcohol, family violence and child maltreatment to inform global policy beyond 2030 [Venue: Deimantas Hall, Best Western Hotel Kaunas, A. Mickevičiaus g. 28, LT-44311 Kaunas]
Speakers: Ingrid Wilson, Anne-Marie Laslett
Venue: Deimantas Hall, Best Western Hotel Kaunas, A. Mickevičiaus g. 28, LT-44311 Kaunas
KBS Coordinating Committee Meeting [16:00, venue: Deimantas Hall, Best Western Hotel Kaunas, A. Mickevičiaus g. 28, LT-44311 Kaunas,] followed by dinner [18:00, venue: ‘Daniela’ restaurant, A. Mickevičiaus g. 28, LT-44311 Kaunas]
Speakers: Gillian Shorter, Anne-Marie Laslett
Venue: Deimantas Hall, Best Western Hotel Kaunas, A. Mickevičiaus g. 28, LT-44311 Kaunas
Summary: Are you a first-timer at KBS? Looking to connect with others and get a better sense of the culture, processes and what to expect throughout the week? Join us for a brief KBS101 to hear about the conference history, the culture of discussants, the football game and more from some regular attenders (with some snacks). It’s the perfect opportunity to meet fellow newcomers and mingle before the conference gets into full swing. Open to all KBS attendees, and especially relevant for PhD students, early career researchers, anyone new to KBS and those curious to connect with ‘new’ KBSers.
Speakers: Claire Wilkinson, Karen Schelleman-Offerman and Gillian Shorter
Location: VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY, S. DAUKANTO ST. 28
Room: 102
International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research (IJADR) Board and Editorial Meeting (invited guests only)
Speakers: Anne-Marie Laslett
Location: VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY, S. DAUKANTO ST. 28
Room: 102
The translation of research evidence into policy is rarely seamless, and this is the case also with alcohol labelling. Researchers, policymakers and civil society actors often approach the topic with different questions, priorities and timelines - and these disconnects can hinder the development of effective legislation. This workshop aims to create a structured space to name and explore these gaps openly. Policymakers and civil society representatives from Lithuania will join the KBS researchers for a facilitated dialogue aimed at surfacing mismatches in how evidence is produced, interpreted and used in policy processes, drawing on the practical experience of introducing alcohol policy. This workshop will draw on lessons learned from the Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which continue to experience some of the highest levels of alcohol-attributable mortality globally, despite substantial declines in per capita consumption over the past decade. These declines have been driven by strong, evidence-based policy action, including implementation of the WHO Best Buys.
Speakers: World Health Organisation/Europe representatives Daša Kokole, Maria Neufeld and others
Location: VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY, S. DAUKANTO ST. 28
Room: 102
This strategic workshop will build on the legacy of the GENACIS, GENAHTO, IGSAHO and Thai Health collaborations with the goal to inform the next iteration of research and global policy. In recent years, a gendered violence policy window has opened with long-overdue attention now on alcohol-related harm within families. Drawing on the recent policy review on harm to women and children from men’s drinking (Karriker-Jaffe et al., 2023) and other framings, this workshop will seek to identify research, policy and intervention priorities, calling for the inclusion of effective strategies and monitoring of key harms in the Global Alcohol Action Plan beyond 2030 as well as in other key policies. The 2026 workshop, after a brief general update on alcohol, gender harm and harm to others, will focus on alcohol-related intimate partner violence and child harm.
Speakers: Anne-Marie Laslett and Ingrid Wilson
Location: VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY, S. DAUKANTO ST. 28
Room: Senato sale
Observational studies have long suggested possible health benefits of light to moderate drinking, but these patterns may reflect lifestyle, socio-economic, or measurement differences rather than the causal impact of alcohol per se. As large biobank datasets become available, genetic epidemiological approaches now offer opportunities to test these assumptions, providing important evidence to inform research, public education, and policy decisions that rely on robust evidence of alcohol’s causal health effects.
This workshop will introduce the genetic epidemiological approach known as Mendelian randomisation in accessible language, with a focus on how it helps clarify causal relationships between alcohol consumption and health outcomes. Using our study of 0.5 million Chinese adults, we will illustrate how genetics, when applied in epidemiological context, can shed light on associations that appear protective in traditional observational studies (e.g., showing no protective effects of moderate drinking for stroke), and deepen our understanding of the scope of alcohol-related health effects. We will then open an interactive discussion to explore the implications of genetic evidence, how they might inform participants’ own work including alcohol related burden estimation, risk communication and broader policy conversations, and potential multi disciplinary collaborations.
Open to anyone, especially those interested in alcohol’s health effects, reliable methods for assessing them, or research involving diverse ancestry populations. No prior genetics knowledge is required.
Speakers: Pek Kei, Yani Huang
Location: VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY, S. DAUKANTO ST. 28
Room: 401
This workshop aims to build awareness and understanding of the different outreach approaches used to support vulnerable groups with alcohol dependence, with a focus on alcohol assertive outreach. It is organised by Dr. Andrea Mohan and Dr. Hannu Jouhki who have combined research and practical expertise in outreach for vulnerable groups who use substances. Participants will learn about the increasing importance of alcohol assertive outreach to support specific population groups regarded as vulnerable, and use systems thinking to identify the challenges and potential solutions to implementing these in their different countries. This workshop is for researchers, practitioners, advocates and policymakers interested in or responsible for supporting and/or treating people with alcohol dependence.
By the end of the workshop, participants will have:
Speakers: Andrea Mohan, Hannu Jouhki
Location: VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY, S. DAUKANTO ST. 28
Room: 403
While a growing body of research has examined how alcohol health warning labels influence consumer awareness and behaviour, the majority of this evidence comes from controlled experimental settings - online surveys, lab-based eye-tracking studies, or simulated purchasing environments. Translating these findings into conclusions about real-world impact remains a critical and largely unresolved challenge. Evaluating labelling effectiveness in naturalistic settings (whether through intervention studies or the assessment of actual labelling policies) requires navigating a distinct set of methodological hurdles, from study design and recruitment to confounding factors, stakeholder engagement, and the unpredictability of real-life behaviour. This workshop will present some case studies from researchers who have directly grappled with these challenges in their own work, not to report on findings, but to reflect openly on what made naturalistic evaluation challenging, what worked and what did not, and how future studies and policy evaluations might be better designed. The aim is to generate a frank, experience-based discussion that can help the field move towards more robust and policy-relevant evidence on how labels perform in the real world.
Speakers: World Health Organisation/Europe representatives Daša Kokole, Maria Neufeld and others
Location: VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY, S. DAUKANTO ST. 28
Room: 102
Recent developments in the identification and diagnosis of autism have raised questions about the previously found negative relationship between autism and harmful alcohol use. Meanwhile, a much larger body of work on ADHD and alcohol primarily consists of work before recent improvements in the identification of ADHD in women. This open meeting is a chance for anyone working, or interested in working, on neurodiversity and alcohol use to discuss gaps in the field, identify data sources and meet potential collaborators.
Speakers: Sarah Callinan
Location: VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY, S. DAUKANTO ST. 28
Room: 404
In this lunchtime panel session, early career researchers and all KBS members are invited to attend to learn the art and the importance of the review process from authors’, reviewers’ and editors’ perspectives. Panel members will include editors and reviewers from The International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research (IJADR - the KBS Journal), Drug and Alcohol Review and Addiction.
Speakers: Rachel O’Donnel, Ingrid Wilson, Michael Livingston, Karen Schelleman-Offermans, Colin Angus and Anne-Marie Laslett
Location: VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY, S. DAUKANTO ST. 28
Room: 102
The ELEPHANT (Evaluating later or expanded premises hours for alcohol in the night-time economy) study team would like to invite KBS colleagues interested in alcohol availability to our final ELEPHANT workshop. We will summarise findings across the various aspects of this major study on the impacts of later trading hours for licensed alcohol premises in two Scottish cities (Glasgow and Aberdeen). We also invite discussion on current and evolving challenges highlighted in our licensing research, and in work internationally, including in relation to the increased availability of online alcohol outlets and rapid delivery services. We look forward to lively discussions!
Running from 2020 to 2026, the ELEPHANT study uses a mixed methods, natural experiment evaluation to understand the impacts of later trading hours in both Scottish cities. Between 2017 and 2019, two different processes led to later opening hours in Scotland: ~40 bars in Aberdeen that had previously closed at or before 1am were granted permission to close later, up to 3am, and 10 nightclubs in Glasgow were granted a 1-hour extension to 4am under a pilot scheme. In 2024, under a separate pilot scheme, Glasgow City Licensing Board granted 54 bars permission to stay open and sell alcohol for an additional hour, until 1am. We aimed to explore business perspectives on the benefits, value and challenges of trading after midnight. The workshop will comprise of short presentations with time for interactive discussion on all aspects of alcohol availability and licensing.
Speakers: Rachel O’Donnel, Niamh Fitzgerald, Karen Maxwell, Jordan Maclean
Location: VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY, S. DAUKANTO ST. 28
Room: 102
Speakers: Gillian Shorter, Anne-Marie Laslett
Location: VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY, S. DAUKANTO ST. 28
Room: Senato salė
