Latest news from the NC3Rs: November 2025

The NC3Rs has a strong track record in investing in in vitro models of human disease that replace the use of animals. We have recently partnered with the MRC, Wellcome and Innovate UK on a funding call to develop human in vitro models of complex disease. While the call primarily focused on human health benefits, our expertise ensured that the animal replacement potential of the work was considered as part of the grant assessment process. Five interdisciplinary teams were awarded a total of £15.9M. The teams include six previous NC3Rs award holders and one project builds on a model developed with NC3Rs funding.

A home-cage analyser system (HCA) developed through our CRACK IT innovation programme has been validated for use in safety pharmacology studies focused on central nervous system endpoints in rats. Experts from academia, biotech and pharma have demonstrated that the HCA can identify side effects in new drugs that traditional in vivo preclinical behavioural assessments miss. Non-invasive, continuous home-cage monitoring technology has significant welfare benefits and this publication advances the evidence base for its wider adoption in regulatory testing.

The latest edition of Tech3Rs, our dedicated newsletter for animal technicians, is now available. In this issue we explore the importance of animal technicians in helping to produce reliable results and hear from two Tech3Rs champions about how they used environmental enrichment to reduce aggression in male mice. To receive the next issue of Tech3Rs direct to your inbox, please email us at tech3Rs@nc3rs.org.uk with the subject line “Subscribe”.

We are seeking speakers for our upcoming Technology Partn3Ring webinar, focused on new approach methodologies (NAMs) for safety assessment. This is an opportunity to showcase your NAMs technologies to the wider scientific community and identify new partners for further development, qualification and use. The webinar will provide a space for researchers, industry scientists and other stakeholders to connect and collaborate to accelerate NAMs development.

Are you involved in biologics manufacture or approval, or monocyte activation test (MAT) kit development? Please take 30 minutes to complete our survey as part of our work to support the wider integration of 3Rs approaches in biologics quality control testing. Whether you are a manufacturer, regulator, scientist or supplier, we want to hear about your experiences on using the MAT as a replacement for the rabbit pyrogen test – how you use and validate it, the cell types you work with and the barriers you face.

Thursday 27 November, 12.30 – 13.30 (GMT)
Our next welfare webinar will focus on using positive reinforcement techniques to improve the welfare of pigs and dogs in research by encouraging voluntary cooperation with procedures and reducing stress. Dr Cathrine Juel Bundgaard (Novo Nordisk and Board member of the Danish 3R-Center) will share practical examples of socialisation and training of conventional pigs, minipigs and dogs in a research environment, including species-specific and general approaches.

Tuesday 9 December, 14.00 – 15.00 (GMT)
We are hosting a webinar showcasing the outcomes of our SAFE CRACK IT Challenge to develop a suite of scalable in vitro bioassays to predict the impact of chemicals on fish reproduction to replace in vivo studies. The team will summarise how the project has combined computational biomarker discovery and in vitro data to predict chemical reproductive toxicity. The webinar will be of interest to ecotoxicologists from industry, academia and regulatory agencies.