Introduction and Updates of the COST Action IMPROVE; Talk of W. Neuhaus at the SGV 2024 in Lausanne, Switzerland (26.-27.2024). Link to the event: SGV Meeting 2024

SGV 2024, CHUV, Lausanne. (© Vootele Voikar)

W.Neuhaus, SGV 2024, 27.11.2024, CHUV, Lausanne. (© Vootele Voikar)

W.Neuhaus, SGV 2024, 27.11.2024, CHUV, Lausanne. (© Vootele Voikar)

Introduction and Updates of the activities of EU3Rnet including an introduction of the COST Action IMPROVE; Talk of W. Neuhaus at the Animalfree Research Forum (Forum - Animalfree Research) in Zurich, Switzerland (11.11.2024).

A summary video of the event could be found via this link: Animalfree Research forum 2024

 

Networking event "How to organise and respond to pressure to phase out animal experimentation in neuroscience" during the FENS 2024 congress, the biggest Neuroscience congress in Europe with over 8000 participants (FENS Forum 2024 | International Neuroscience Conference), in Vienna, Austria on

A short report could be read on: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vootele-voikar-2020_fens2024-activity-7212357642264952832-87HR?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Winfried Neuhaus joined the panel for discussion.

Home take messages from the report above (© Vootele Voikar):

Every scientist using animals is also a Lab Animal Scientist - these two disciplines need more dialogue and work together .
Every scientist should be ready to present and explain their work publicly.
Every scientist should use the best model available for a given question.
There is no simple messages or easy answers, communication depends also on target groups.
Only robust and rigorous science is defendable - open science, preregistration, systematic reviews etc to increase transparency and reproducibility, also for exploratory research.
Avoid polarization, opposing "us" (know) and "they" (don't know).

Thanks for organising it, hope we all learn continuously how to be better scientists, the society needs us!

The COST Action IMPROVE has introduced itself at the Symposium on "3Rs and NAMs: all-inclusive?" in Utrecht, The Netherlands on the 19th of June 2024 (The 3Rs and NAMs: all-inclusive? - News & Events - Utrecht University).

See also following link: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vootele-voikar-2020_3rs-3rs-activity-7209250078639718400-J2o9?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

One session featuring leaders of the IMPROVE - 3Rs concepts to improve the quality of biomedical science (CA21139) - Winfried Neuhaus / Nuno Henrique Franco / Jeffrey Bajramovic , talking about sustainability of 3Rs and how this concept is covering good science with best methods available, also the role of increasing number of 3R Centers in Europe.

Photo: Wilfried Posch

Winfried Neuhaus introduced the COST Action IMPROVE by giving a talk entitled "The COST Action Networking Activity IMPROVE" at the Austrian 3Rs Days in Innsbruck, Austria on 6.12.2023. The Austrian 3Rs Days from 5.-7.12.2023 was attended by about 200 international participants, who discussed novel methods and measures of each single R of the three 3Rs, Replacement, Reduction and Refinement of animal experiments.

Photo: JSAAE

The first large Training school with a focus on Dissemination took place at Università degli Studi di Milano in Milan (Italy) with expert trainers and trainees from 13^th-15^th of September 2023, directly before the Centro 3Rs meeting. The in total about 30 in-person and online participants attended courses on “Theory of Science Communication”, “Theory and Software for Video-Making”, Video Ideas and Analysis”, “Social Media”, “Use of Social media Channels”, “GDPR in Communication”, “Newsletters” and “Twitter Bio”. The Training school was very successful offering new knowledge and techniques which could be leveraged for the COST Action itself or for the different tasks in the daily life of the participants.

Photo: Arti Ahluwalia

Thanks to dissemination conference grants under Cost Action IMPROVE Arti Ahluwalia and Winfried Neuhaus attended the 12th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences (WC12) from August 27-31, 2023.

Arti Ahluwalia presented two lectures, one in the Symposium “Future of Multi-Scale Modelling and Simulation in Disease and Toxicology” (Title of the talk: Lab on a laptop: beyond the experimental model) and one in the Symposium “Implementing the 3Rs in Education under the theme Next-Gen Education” (Title of the talk: Centro 3R, mainstreaming replacement through pervasive 3R education). The first presentation described some of the virtual models developed in her lab. During her talk she put forward the proposal that in vitro models might be replaced by the “lab on a laptop”. Following the symposium, she was involved in engaging discussions on the value of in-silico models, analysing why they are not widely used and how to render them accessible to enable the implementation of viable and valid alternatives to animal experiments. This is a central theme in IMPROVE. In the second presentation she described the state of knowledge on the 3Rs at Italian universities before and after the Italian Centro 3R’s (www.centr3r.it) campaign of pervasive education at all levels. The results showed how education significantly increases the application of the 3Rs and promotes responsible research linked to WG4 Education of our COST Action.

Winfried Neuhaus gave a talk in the session "A World of 3Rs Centres: Unity in Diversity" entitled "The Rise of European 3Rs centres and their network EU3Rnet" focusing on the promotion of the COST Action IMPROVE as an outcome of the collaboration of the European 3R centres.

The WC12 congress was a dynamic and variegated event, providing a great opportunity to discuss the future of the 3Rs with scientists from all over the world, network with young researchers and leaders in the field, and to showcase Europe’s leadership in this area.

Dr. Maria Kitsara gave a talk about "Micro- and nanoengineered technologies for bio-applications: focus on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine" at the School of Science and Engineering, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK on 9. August 2023. Emphasis was devoted to cardiac disease modelling and regenerative medicine using polymeric materials.