Date: April 9–10, 2025
Location: University of Helsinki
Over two days, the FIN3R Symposium and Workshop brought together experts, researchers, and professionals from laboratory animal science to discuss and advance the culture of care in Finland and Europe. The event featured lectures from international and Finnish speakers on the first day, followed by an interactive workshop on the second day.
COST Action IMPROVE participated through Fernando Gonzalez Uarquin’ s presentation on integrating animal care staff and lab technicians into experimental planning—a promising step toward enhancing transparency in research practices. Such initiative, created within CA IMPROVE, involve around 14 members of the Action.
On Day 1, the symposium was chaired by Mikko Karpale (University of Oulu) with lecturers from Paulin Jirkof (University of Zurich, Switzerland), Fernando Gonzalez Uarquin (University Medical Center Mainz, Germany), Jordi Tremoleda (Queen Mary University of London, UK), Vootele Voikar (University of Helsinki), Hajnalka Nadai (Experimentica), and Hanna-Marja Voipio (University of Oulu). The discussion panel was chaired by Noora Holk (Orion Pharma), allowing participants to exchange ideas and reflect on the day's topics.
On day 2, the workshop focused on practical aspects of communication challenges within animal facilities. Led by Jordi Tremoleda and Fernando Gonzalez Uarquin, it brought together 15 participants for an interactive session.
Key activities included: 1) Sharing Care-full stories to illustrate real-world experiences, 2) Group discussions addressing routine communication problems encountered in animal facilities. 3) Exploring training materials designed to adapt culture-of-care practices to different institutions. 4) Exchanging ideas and experiences among participants from diverse professional backgrounds.
For further inquiries about the FIN3R Symposium and Workshop or to learn more about the culture of care initiatives, please reach out to the organizing team via email at info@fin3r.fi. Additional resources, including training materials and networking opportunities, can also be accessed through the FIN3R website: www.fin3r.fi.
The 4th Asian Congress for Alternatives to Animal Experiments (4ACAAE) and 7th Annual Meeting of the Society for Alternatives to Animal Experiments India (SAAE-I) took place in Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India from 12.12.-14.12.2024 (www.jamiahamdard.ac.in/4ACAAE) under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Y.J. Gupta and the Local Organizing Committee (LOC), led by Prof. Seikh Raisuddin (Organizing Secretary) supported by Prof. H.A. Khan, Prof. Suhel Parvez, Dr. Nidhi and many more wonderful people from his team.
Winfried Neuhaus was invited to the congress and gave a talk in the international session entitled “Overview about recent European 3Rs activities with a focus on 3Rs centres”, in which he took a closer look at current European developments in the 3Rs field with respect to the EC roadmap of phasing out animal studies and the response dynamics from several stakeholders, and the activities of EU3Rnet (network of European 3R centres) and the COST Action IMPROVE.
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
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.
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.