The marketing, acceptability, and consumption of no/zero- and low-strength (NoLo) alcohol are growing globally, and the trends are estimated to continue to rise. No/zero- and low-strength (NoLo) alcohol are a broad category of beverages which contain between 0% and 3.7% alcohol by volume (ABV). While the alcohol industry frames its advertising messages about zero/low alcoholic drinks as a solution to alcohol consumption and related harm, pushing for NoLo products to gain wider acceptability and a larger market share, there are policy and other regulatory lapses to keep tap with the industry’s strategies in Ireland (as in many other jurisdictions). Therefore, the alcohol industry may continue to spread biased information about NoLo, which normalises alcohol consumption in Ireland- a country with growing alcohol-related health and socio-economic burdens. This event aims to bring together 50 scholars and stakeholders in a workshop to present and discuss available evidence about NoLo marketing and consumption and brainstorm and produce a list of priority research areas on NoLo and other gaps in alcohol and health research in Ireland. The workshop attendees will form collaborative groups to address the list of research gaps produced. The workshop report will be published on our institutions’/organisations’ websites, and we will also send a summary of the outcome to HRB and the Department of Health. We also aim to summarise the findings as a peer-reviewed journal article. Having come from a country where Guinness and other alcohol companies exert much influence on policymakers to Ireland, where Guinness and other health-damaging industries are seemingly revered, I hope to use this event to kickstart discussions on how to generate and disseminate evidence-based information that will change the narratives and reduce alcohol consumption and related problems in Ireland.
