Latest news from the NC3Rs: May 2023

As many of you will have seen, the cosmetic testing issue has recently been covered in the press. Following a Home Office statement on worker and environmental safety assessment of cosmetic ingredients, the NC3Rs produced a response which you can read on our website.

Registered reports are an alternative way for scientists to publish their work that can promote transparency, minimise publication bias and improve study reproducibility. We spoke to Professor Alistair Lawrence and Dr Vincent Bombail about their experience publishing the first Stage 1 registered report on the NC3Rs Gateway, outlining their study proposal and protocol. Stage 2 – results and discussion – will be added after the research is completed. Alistair and Vincent share why they chose to publish their work as a registered report and advice for researchers considering doing the same.

A new issue of our Tech3Rs newsletter for animal technicians  (add hyperlink when available) is available online to read and print for your facility. In this edition we share how gentle handling and proper habituation leads to low stress procedures for mice and rats. We also highlight two Tech3Rs champions making refinements for zebrafish, webinar recordings on evaluating environmental enrichment and microsampling, and the new-look macaque website.

Pocket-sized versions of the revised ARRIVE guidelines are available, free of charge, to any researchers or organisations interested in using them. This handy, compact format, including both the Essential 10 and the Recommended Set, allows for quick reference in a scientific setting and easy dissemination among research groups or institutions. 

We are working with SciCrunch to develop an AI tool to check publications’ compliance with the ARRIVE Essential 10 for transparent and reproducible reporting of in vivo studies. The tool will be freely available and use natural language processing to automatically identify key information missing from a manuscript. ARRIVE compliance checking functionality will be added to SciCrunch’s widely-used SciScore platform next year, and the tool will be launched on the ARRIVE guidelines website in 2025.

Are you interested in hearing about the latest 3Rs advancements and innovations from the comfort of your local? The NC3Rs is returning to Pint of Science, the annual science festival that brings researchers and the public together to talk science in pubs, cafes and local spaces.

Join us at our events across the country to hear from local NC3Rs grant holders about their research:

The next webinar series in our cross-Europe 3Rs centre collaboration will focus on culture of care. Expert speakers will cover putting a culture of care into practice in different research environments and how to measure impact and progress as well as the issue of compassion fatigue.

The series is aimed at animal care staff at all levels, though will be of interest to anyone working day-to-day with research animals.

Tuesday 18 July, 9.00 – 10.00 (BST)

Our Experimental Design Assistant (EDA) tool helps researchers at any level design robust in vivo experiments. Following a presentation on the key aspects of the online tool, Dr Esther Pearl (NC3Rs Experimental Design Programme Manager) will answer questions on how you can use the EDA to design and plan your next study. Limited spaces are available on a first come first served basis and attendees are eligible for CPD points.

If you currently work with mice, the North American 3Rs Collaborative (NA3RsC) and researchers at the University of Michigan are inviting you to share your attitudes, knowledge and implementation related to picking up mice. Contact Dr Megan LaFolette with any questions: meglafollette@na3rsc.org.uk.

Through a combination of lectures, practical activities and tutorials, this online workshop will focus on the major steps required to undertake a systematic review and meta-analysis of preclinical animal studies using the freely available online platform Systematic Review Facility (SyRF). The workshop, delivered over three half days by the CAMARADES group, is free to attend for all researchers and would be particularly useful to those who have never undertaken a systematic review before.