Collaborations between industry scientists and the broader scientific community are common. Tobacco industry collaboration with public health scientists presents unique opportunities and challenges. The convergence of i) an FDA regulatory environment where FDA can make science and evidence based decisions about tobacco products and communications; ii) innovations by tobacco companies and concurrent evolving adult tobacco consumer expectations; and iii) divergent perspectives in the public health community relative to tobacco harm reduction all serve to create a nexus for tobacco industry, FDA and academic scientists to effectively collaborate. We all have a role advancing harm reduction. For example, industry and academic scientists may gather the scientific evidence to demonstrate the risk reduction potential of new innovative tobacco products. Their knowledge of cigarette smoke attributable-risk and adult tobacco consumer preferences is important for this analysis. Public health, including FDA, play a pivotal role in advancing harm reduction by educating adult smokers about the identified risk differential between tobacco products, so that adult tobacco consumers can make informed decisions. Although productive, these collaborations face several challenges. Most notably, the history of the tobacco industry may sometimes negatively impact effective scientific engagement efforts. However, regardless of potential barriers, several new forums are facilitating productive communications between academic harm reduction enthusiasts, pessimists, public health and the tobacco industry. These forums serve to diminish barriers such as a lack of trust. This paper will present some of the conditions necessary for successful and productive tobacco industry engagement with the scientific community.