💡 @replanimalres.bsky.social has been doing impressive work unpacking assumptions that still shape debates about animal experimentation.
Their recent blogs tackle under-discussed questions with thoughtfulness.
These & others are worth a read!
🔗s below 👇
#bioethics #animalresearch
📢 #Students and #academic #Supervisors of #Research, you have til March 30th to apply for a #Studentship for this Summer. Take a look and get your applications in😊
📅 6-10 weeks duration
💷 £350 pw stipend
🧪 £1K lab consumables
#grants #3rs #funding
replacinganimalresearch.org.uk/for-scientis...
The clarity of the pledges, the organisations named responsible for their delivery, and expected timescales, all allow us to hold them to account.
It's also important to remember how far we've come. 🧪🐭
#Replacement #3Rs #AnimalResearch
But in many areas it's not that simple. 🤓
There are ambitious goals that require complex cultural, behavioural, and structural changes with the way we do #science within this strategy, not just the easy wins.
Many areas of regulatory testing have already been replaced, many more are underway and so some may see this as unambitious and easily achieved.
The focus is largely on replacing animal procedures in regulatory testing, like safety testing new drugs and chemicals, which are actually only a small % of the total carried out each year.
- Training for #funders and their review panels to ensure that #replacement opportunities are consistently taken in their funding decisions.
- Ensure Journal Editors welcome well designed and reported alternative methods without requiring comparison with an animal ‘model’.
#3Rs #AnimalResearch
Other highlights include areas that we have long been calling for 📢:
- Improving advice on alternatives for the community
- Dedicated training for PhD students in alternative methods
We're particularly pleased to see significant funding being devoted to the science and technology, including a preclinical translational models hub and a new UK Centre for the development and validation of alternatives.
www.gov.uk/government/p...
It outlines clear areas of work both within govt across different depts, and through organisations like @nc3rs.bsky.social and via @ukri.org 's Medical Research Council. It also mentions how this will be driven, achieved, and the progress towards each goal measured.
Last week UK Govt's Strategy for Replacing #Animals in #Science was published. It's a solid commitment to not only support the development, validation, and uptake of alternative methods, but to eliminate the use of #animals wherever possible. 🧪
www.gov.uk/government/p...
Join us next week (04/09/25 12:00 BST) for a FREE 30-min session for reviewers of grant applications involving animal use. We’ll provide an easy tool to help ensure all applications have robustly implemented #Replacement in line with #3Rs obligations.
replacinganimalresearch.org.uk/resources/re...
We ran a Replacement-focused 3Rs workshop this summer. In fact, demand was so high we ran it twice.
Researchers want to replace animals, but need support, tools & culture change. Here's what we learned from 52 countries 🌍
replacinganimalresearch.org.uk/were-going-g...
We have one question that guides everything we do:
👉 “Will it help to further replacement, more than anything else we could be doing now?”
This single question helps us stay focused, strategic, and impact-driven.
We explain why in our latest blog 👇
replacinganimalresearch.org.uk/will-it-make...
🧪Humane education isn’t just about avoiding dissection.
It’s about what we teach students to expect (and accept).
In our latest blog, we explore why language, actions, and attitudes all matter in humane education.
🔗 replacinganimalresearch.org.uk/humane-educa...
Deadlines close for our Innovation Grants scheme tomorrow!
It's not too late to get your brief project outline submitted to be in with a chance to win our #InnovationGrant #funding!
Get your ideas together for proof-of-principle or pilot studies and fill out your preliminary application here:
replacinganimalresearch.org.uk/for-scientis...
This is just the first stage of the application process.
Those that fit our mission and purpose, are novel and innovative, and advance human relevant science and replacing animal use, will be invited to submit a more detailed application.
#Replacement #3Rs #SmallGrants #Grants #Research
📢 If you haven't already submitted a proposal for our
2025 #InnovationGrant Scheme, you still have 10 days! 📢
🐭 Replacing #animals and animal-derived materials
💷 £5K - £15K
📅 6 - 24 months
🧪 #Science
replacinganimalresearch.org.uk/for-scientis...
We've recently been rethinking our approach to supporting academics and other scientists and their establishments to replace #AnimalResearch. The #ReplacementChecklist is a new tool, intended to be accessible to all stakeholders making decisions about whether animals are used in #Science. 🧪
Selfie of smilying woman with sunglasses on her head with background of some ancient ruins of the acropolis and a view across Athens.
Entrance to a Conference Centre welcoming delegates to FELASA Congress 2025.
Lanyard with conference name badge identifying delegate, country of origin and organisation they represent, pictured alongside pocket programme of conference activities.
As part of @replanimalres.bsky.social work with Universities, we're running workshops at #FELASA2025 on Developing an Institutional 3Rs Strategy.
Exploring opportunities to replace animal use requires a different kind of thinking. Please get in touch if you need help in the replacement of animals in your field or Institution: hello@replacinganimalresearch.org.uk
#Research 🧪
Being able to find and assess info to help replace #AnimalResearch is essential for for good #science and legal and ethical reasons too.
#3Rs #Research
Other guidance directs users to in vivo literature, encouraging systematic reviews to help find information on animal #replacement approaches.
SRs are helpful in other contexts but not for exploring ways of avoiding animal use that might need tech to be adopted and adapted from elsewhere.
You can also download a detailed guide for advice on terminology, appropriate strategies, and available resources for efficient online searches.
🧪 We've revised and rewritten our 'Searching for Alternatives' guidance!
We've set out basic principles of #searching to help people find and identify information relevant to their specialism, with a step-by-step example.
#Science #3Rs #Replacement
replacinganimalresearch.org.uk/resources/se...
We were so pleased to be invited to help Ireland's research community better implement the 'R' of #Replacement! If you're a researcher, member of a review panel, #Ethics committee, #AWERB or #AWB and want some support or training in searching for alternatives to #AnimalResearch, please get in touch!
It was a brilliant day exploring diverse Developments in #Replacement - a fantastic showcase of both emerging technologies, and existing approaches to avoid animal use, including #iPSCs, #AI, #Bioprinting, #organoids (and also partial replacements using animals 'not considered sentient').
We also used our own #ReplacementChecklist in order to evaluate the extent to which real life case studies may have explored opportuntities for replacement in #AnimalResearch. You can access our Checklist here: replacinganimalresearch.org.uk/resources/re...
Our own Research Manager @drdoox.bsky.social also ran a workshop with #EURL #ECVAM's wonderful Annalisa Gastaldello in 'Strategies for Searching Data Repositories', using a demo version of their new #AI driven database
(you can see current version here: data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/b759...)