Latest news from the NC3Rs: February 2026

The Innovate UK/NC3Rs ‘Industrial human-relevant drug models’ Contracts for Innovation competition will support delivery of two priority targets from the UK Government’s 2025 alternatives strategy. £2M is available to accelerate industry adoption of non-animal approaches for pharmacokinetic prediction and cardiovascular safety studies and move towards replacing some dog and non-human primate use in drug development.

• Register for the online competition briefing:
  Wednesday 4 March, 14.00 – 16.00 (GMT).
• Register for the in-person workshop:
  Tuesday 10 March, 10.00 – 17.00, Central London.
  Registration closes: Monday 2 March.

Last year the NC3Rs was commissioned by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) to review the UK research landscape for human relevant in vitro models in order to inform the wider policy, funding and infrastructure requirements to accelerate translation into use in pharmaceutical R&D. The report from the review has now been published. Guided by significant input from expert academic and industry stakeholders, key findings include the requirement for more investment and training in model development, a new Translational Readiness Framework for benchmarking in vitro models and the need for equitable access to support and infrastructure across the UK.

The NC3Rs and Only Good Antibodies (OGA) community are recruiting Antibody Champions to address the waste of animals in the production and use of poorly characterised and inadequately performing antibodies. Over a 12-month training programme, early career researchers will develop skills to support the use of higher-quality antibodies within their institutions and local research communities.

The team at the University of Exeter’s Galleria Mellonella Research Centre have published a method for generating the first genetically engineered wax moths. Supported by NC3Rs funding, this publication in Nature Lab Animal strengthens the utility of Galleria larvae as a partial replacement model across a range of research areas.

Tuesday 3 March, 13.00 – 14.00 (GMT) 
In the next instalment of their ‘Virtually Speaking’ webinar series, VICT3R are showcasing the ‘Virtual Dog’ under development through the NC3Rs Virtual Second Species CRACK IT Challenge. The Challenge aims to apply advances in computational approaches and machine learning to replace some long-term toxicity studies in dogs. Alexander Kulesza from ESQlabs will share the system architecture, current implementation and future applications to improve prediction of chronic and idiosyncratic toxicities.

Wednesday 4 March, 16.00 – 18.00 (GMT)
The NC3Rs 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.

Thursday 5 March, 14.00 – 15.00 (GMT)
Learn more about an in vitro vascularised and innervated skeletal muscle model of traumatic injury, developed through the NC3Rs STRATIS CRACK IT Challenge. The team from Myomaker Bio will also share their journey from university spin-out to contract research organisation, and highlight opportunities for collaboration, use or validation of their tissue models to replace the use of animals in preclinical drug screening.

Share-It 3Rs are gathering insights on live animal and animal tissue sharing practices within institutions around the world. Responses will be used to map current procedures, challenges and needs, and identify effective processes for different institution types, sizes and resource levels. The survey should take 5 to 10 minutes to complete.