Latest news from the NC3Rs: August 2025

Thursday 11 September and Tuesday 16 September, 12.30 – 13.30 (BST)
Across two lunchtime sessions, expert speakers from academia and industry will explore how refined, study-specific humane endpoints and early intervention strategies can be implemented in different research scenarios to minimise animal suffering. Topics will be of interest to researchers, animal technicians and ethics committee members. Certificates of attendance are available.

Thursday 18 September, 15.00 – 16.00 (BST)
SIRF is a tool to assess if research proposals have taken sex into account in experimental design and analysis plans. Ensuring that experiments include female and male animals is one part of designing a robust in vivo study that produces reproducible, generalisable and meaningful results using the fewest number of animals. Learn more about common misconceptions around sex-inclusive research and how SIRF can be used by scientists, ethical review bodies and funders.

Wednesday 24 September, 14.00 – 15.00 (BST)
If you work in oncology join us at our next Technology Partn3Ring webinar to hear about opportunities to collaborate with academics and SMEs and access their 3Rs technologies to advance cancer research. The technologies being showcased will be of interest to researchers, clinicians and pharmaceutical and biotech industry professionals.

Thursday 25 September, 14.00 – 16.00 (BST)
The NC3Rs NAMs Network and the British Toxicology Society are hosting a webinar exploring how AI and approaches such as machine learning can be used to improve toxicity prediction and reduce reliance on animal models. Three leading experts will share insights on the role of AI in the landscape of new approach methodologies from academic, industry and regulatory perspectives.

Tuesday 30 September, 9.00 – 11.00 (BST)
Our Experimental Design Assistant (EDA) tool helps researchers at any level design robust in vivo experiments. During this interactive session Dr Esther Pearl (Programme Manager – Experimental Design) will give a live demonstration of the EDA before answering your questions and providing personalised feedback as you design your own experiment.  

Tuesday 23 September, 9.30 – 16.15 (BST)
The British Pharmacological Society and British Neuroscience Association are hosting a joint online conference to explore 3Rs opportunities in preclinical dosing practices within neuropharmacology research. Evidence-based dosing strategies that avoid unnecessarily high doses, while maintaining biological relevance, can reduce the number of animals needed, minimise animal suffering, improve translatability and generate more meaningful data.