In late 1993 the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NCADA) called for expressions of interest to undertake a critical analysis of research relating to alcohol and other drugs in the workplace. The contract to conduct this project was awarded to a consortium of agencies involved in alcohol and other drug research. The participating agencies are the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA), the Drug and Alcohol Services Council of South Australia (DASC), the National Institute of Labour Studies, the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Curtin University and the National Centre for Research into the Prevention of Drug Abuse (NCRPDA). The project aims are: to provide an overview of current Australian research on alcohol and other drugs in the workplace; identify gaps in research; critically review the research methods; assess the utility of the research; identify costs and benefits of current workplace research and intervention strategies, and on that basis, identify the most effective workplace strategies.