Latest news from the NC3Rs: March 2025

NC3Rs team members have hosted, spoken at and delivered 25 events so far this year, including conferences, webinars and workshops. A fantastic 3,231 people from 53 countries attended The Togeth3R Consortium’s webinar series on non-animal approaches – if you missed out on this series, the recordings are now available. You can also catch up with opportunities to collaborate with academics and industry partners using cardiovascular technologies. Other events have included sharing 3Rs advances and impacts with animal technicians and vets at IAT Congress and inviting toxicologists to our offices for a day of hands-on data analysis. Thanks to everyone who has joined us!

Apply for the International 3Rs Prize

Wherever you are in the world and whatever your field of research, if you want to raise awareness of your 3Rs work on the global stage we encourage you to apply for our annual 3Rs Prize – an international award for outstanding and original work that has achieved or has the potential to achieve a major 3Rs impact. The Prize is sponsored by GSK who provide a £20k contribution to the £28k prize grant to further the 3Rs impacts of the winning work, with the rest of the funds and a £2k personal award made by the NC3Rs.

Submit your publication by Thursday 1 May.

Check if your paper is eligible, find out how to apply and hear from past 3Rs Prize winners.

Read the latest issue of Tox News

Stay updated with the latest news from our Toxicology and Regulatory Sciences team by registering for our specialist newsletter, Tox News. Read the latest issue to learn more about our upcoming events and recent activities, including a urinalysis workshop report that features industry case studies on the value of this data for safety assessment and practical steps to apply the 3Rs to urine sample collection.

Read the latest issue and register for Tox News.

NC3Rs early career researchers: Leading the way on 3Rs model adoption

We have awarded over £100k to eleven NC3Rs-funded PhD students and postdoctoral researchers and technical staff working on NC3Rs grants for activities focused on facilitating wider adoption of their 3Rs models, tools and technologies.

Learn more about the awards.

New partnerships with EURL ECVAM to support adoption of new approach methodologies

We are excited to announce the European Union Reference Laboratory for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EURL ECVAM) as partners on two CRACK IT Challenges – SensOoChip and CrossDART. ECVAM will provide expert advice in validating alternative safety assessment methods, helping to bridge the gap between innovation and market adoption.

Learn more about our Challenges and partnership with EURL ECVAM.

Improving post-surgical care of rodents

We have awarded £150k to Malsen Medical AS through our Rodent Shelter CRACK IT Challenge, supported by AstraZeneca and the University of Gothenburg. The team will develop NestLab, a shelter for rats and mice to refine post-operative care by providing warmth, shelter and a means to non-invasively monitor rodent welfare, that will be compatible with all cage types.

Find out more about funding to improve post-surgical care of rodents.

Critical connections with the 3Rs

Tuesday 29 April
We are giving a talk, sponsoring a 3Rs poster prize and will have a stand to meet attendees at this event organised by King’s College London and IPS Product Supplies Limited, that brings together researchers, animal technicians and industry professionals to advance the 3Rs.

Find out more and register: Critical connections with the 3Rs.

Registrations open: NAMs Network symposium

Thursday 1 May, 9.30 – 17.00
London, UK
Our NAMs Network symposium will connect technology developers with end-users of new approach methodologies in human safety assessment. Featuring presentations from NAMs experts, panel discussions, a brainstorming workshop and networking opportunities, register now to join the discussion on reducing the reliance on animals for toxicity testing.

Learn more and register for the NAMs Network symposium.

This event is exclusively members of our NAMs Network. If you are interested in attending but are not currently a member, please join the Network before registering for the event.

Virtual workshop: Using the Experimental Design Assistant

Tuesday 20 May, 9.00 – 11.00 (GMT)
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 for Experimental Design, will give a live demonstration of the EDA before answering your questions and providing personalised feedback as you design your own experiment.

British Toxicology Society Skills Gap Initiative

The BTS Skills Gap Initiative was launched to support an increase in skilled applicants for toxicology roles in the UK, with new training modules in development. Dr Natalie Burden, Head of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) Strategy, is developing an ecotoxicology module to run from late April to June 2025 which includes a session on the use of NAMs in environmental safety assessment and an interactive session on environmental next generation risk assessment.

Find out more about the BTS Skills Gap Initiative.

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