Objective

The governing statutes of the institute define its mission as follows:

The National Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research is an independent research institute the purpose of which is research for knowledge production concerning the use and abuse of intoxicants and other addictive substances, with a particular stress on questions relating to social studies.

The institute shall:

Assess the scale of health and social problems resulting from the use of intoxicants, what causes them and how they can be prevented or reduced by the actions of governmental and non-governmental organisations
Generate knowledge of relevance to substance abuse prevention
Assess the impact of current strategies irrespective of administrative boundaries and levels
Ensure findings are made available