Latest news from the NC3Rs: March 2026

Sponsored by GSK, the NC3Rs international 3Rs Prize recognises both emerging and established models, tools and technologies to advance the 3Rs. We welcome applications from around the world, across academia and industry and spanning the medical, biological and veterinary sciences. Over its 21-year history, the 3Rs Prize has recognised pioneering scientific advances that have gone on to have major impacts on animal use. The winner receives a £28k prize grant and a £2k personal award.

In partnership with the BBSRC we have awarded over £200k to strengthen cross-sector collaborations that improve the relevance and real-world impact of 3Rs models and technologies. The nine awards, made to members of NC3Rs Networks, will support early-stage collaborative projects between academic researchers and partners in industry and SMEs, to move promising 3Rs models towards wider use in practice.

Myomaker Bio share an in vitro vascularised and innervated skeletal muscle model of traumatic injury, developed through the NC3Rs STRATIS CRACK IT Challenge. Learn more about how their tissue models can be applied to replace the use of animals in preclinical drug screening, alongside the team’s journey from university spin-out to contract research organisation.

Wednesday 22 April and Wednesday 6 May, 14.00 –⁠ 15.15 (BST) 

Our Technology Partn3Ring webinar series showcases 3Rs technologies to identify new partners for further development, qualification and use. We are launching a fortnightly series on NAMs – replacement technologies for use in assessing chemical or drug toxicity – reflecting the high interest from researchers and technology developers in this area. The first two sessions are open for registration, covering topics ranging from human cell-based, on-chip and stem cell models to invertebrate models as partial replacements for drug efficacy and drug/consumer product toxicity testing.

Thursday 14 May, 12.30 – 13.30 (BST) 

Training animals to cooperate with procedures is an effective way to reduce stress in a laboratory environment and improve animal welfare. Our upcoming welfare webinar will focus on practical guidance for habituating dogs, minipigs and non-human primates to procedures commonly used in regulatory safety assessment, including inhalation safety studies, blood sampling and ophthalmological exams.

This event has been rescheduled from an earlier date ⁠– if you registered previously you will receive an email inviting you to re-register.

Wednesday 22 April, Loughborough, UK 

A meeting from ELRIG’s UK Forum will showcase cell-based models in translational research and new approach methodologies for safety assessment. Through expert talks, interactive discussions and technology demonstrations, this event will explore next generation in vitro models, including organoids, microphysiological systems and co-culture platforms, and how these can be integrated into drug discovery pipelines to replace animal use. 

The US-based 3Rs Collaborative (3RsC) are inviting researchers to share their experiences of how data from microphysiological systems (MPS) are used in drug discovery and development. The 3RsC MPS Initiative, with input from the IQ MPS and US-government representatives, are interested in understanding current practices, barriers and opportunities for the wider uptake of these replacement technologies. Their survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete.