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International 3Rs Prize now open for applications. £30k prize (£2k personal award) for outstanding science with demonstrable 3Rs impacts.

NC3Rs | 20 Years: Pioneering Better Science

Latest news from the NC3Rs: March 2022

Last chance to apply for the International 3Rs Prize

Is your research making a big difference to the 3Rs? This year's International 3Rs Prize is open for applications until Wednesday 6 April from anyone who has published an outstanding paper with demonstrable 3Rs impacts in the last three years. This globally recognised award is sponsored by GSK and consists of a £28k prize grant and a £2k personal award.

To be considered for this year’s award, complete and submit the short application form describing your work, its 3Rs and scientific impacts, and how you would use the prize grant. We welcome submissions of papers where the main purpose of the research was to achieve a 3Rs impact, as well as those where the 3Rs impacts were a secondary benefit.

Join the NC3Rs team and support our funding schemes

We are currently recruiting an Operations Officer to join our team to support the delivery of our funding schemes, and in particular our CRACK IT Challenges competition for developing new 3Rs technologies. Applicants should be educated to A‑level or equivalent, with experience of working in an administrative role.

New resources on the NC3Rs website

Have you explored our new and improved resources yet? As well as filtering content by your job role and the species or model you are interested in, you can also narrow down your search to focus on the type of information you are looking for, such as guidance on husbandry, or e‑learning modules on how to refine procedures. Our two latest resources are highlighted below:

Read the latest issue of Tech3Rs

The March 2022 issue of our newsletter for animal technicians is now online. In this issue we introduce our online resource on zebrafish skin swabbing and summarise research papers that look at skin preparation before surgery and perioperative support in mice and rats. We also highlight new rodent welfare resources and our upcoming IAT Congress workshop on managing aggression in laboratory animal species.

Help us improve Tech3Rs

If you read Tech3Rs, we would like to hear your feedback. We are running a short survey on the content and design of Tech3Rs to understand how we can make sure we offer you the best reading experience. The survey should take no more than ten minutes to complete.

Share your views before by Friday 29 April

Playpen access improves rat welfare

A new paper demonstrates the positive welfare effects of rat playpens and their potential use in reducing the negative impacts of aversive procedures. This work adds to the evidence base supporting playpens as a refinement, as well as their potential to improve data validity and generalisability by promoting good physical fitness and normal physiology in rats.

New NC3Rs-funded e-learning modules on pain assessment and alleviation

Two new e‑learning modules fulfilling training requirements under Directive 2010/63/EU have been developed by Research Animal Training with the support of the NC3Rs. Module EU21.7 provides detailed practical information on choosing and using analgesics, including issues you might encounter when managing pain following surgery. Module EU21.8 focuses on how to assess post‑operative pain, including opportunities for you to assess and score pain levels and receive feedback on your performance.

Survey deadline extended: the 3Rs in biologicals quality control and testing

Do you work within a national regulatory authority or control laboratory? If so, we would like to learn about your experiences of implementing the 3Rs and non‑animal approaches within the quality control and batch/lot release testing of biological products. Please take 30 minutes to fill in our survey on the 3Rs impacts you have achieved, barriers you have experienced and any future opportunities. Your responses will inform our wider programme of work on reviewing animal use requirements in WHO guidelines on biologicals testing.

2022 Studentship scheme now open for outline applications

Our 2022 PhD Studentship funding scheme is now open for informal outlines. Awards of either three or four years' duration with a value of £30k (non‑FEC) per annum are available, including up to two three‑year joint awards with the British Heart Foundation for projects advancing the 3Rs in cardiovascular research.

The deadline to submit an outline application is Tuesday 3 May – find details of how to apply on our website or email studentships@nc3rs.org.uk if you have any questions.

Announcing a call for Brief Reports

Do you have data from a smaller piece of work completed as part of your NC3Rs award? Don’t miss this opportunity to get credit for your work by publishing it in a Brief Report on our gateway. Papers published through this call will have the Article Processing Charges covered by the NC3Rs.

We have a range of resources, from guidance to practical workshops, to guide you through the process. The deadline for submission of papers is Wednesday 15 June.

Register for our next Experimental Design Assistant demonstrations

Have a burning question about the design of your next study? The next virtual demonstrations of our Experimental Design Assistant (EDA) tool will take place on Wednesday 30 March and Thursday 26 May with limited spaces allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. During the sessions Dr Esther Pearl (NC3Rs) will show how the EDA can help researchers at any level design robust in vivo experiments that are more likely to give reproducible results, followed by a Q&A session.

Workshop: Implementing the 3Rs in WHO guidelines – understanding the impact on quality control and batch release testing of biologicals in Asia

Thursday 28 April, 7‑11:10am (BST)

We are hosting a series of regional workshops for biologicals manufacturers, regulators and other relevant stakeholders to share their perspective on how wider application of the 3Rs could impact the quality control and batch release testing of biologicals globally. The outputs from these workshops will inform recommendations we make to the WHO on implementing the 3Rs in their guidelines. Additional workshops for Africa and Pan‑America will take place later in 2022.

Webinar: The impact of food restriction on experimental outcomes and rodent welfare

Wednesday 4 May, 2-3:30pm (BST)

This webinar will address the scientific and animal welfare implications of using food restriction in rodent studies. Shorter, refined food restriction paradigms, or removing food restriction altogether, can improve welfare and deliver more reliable and reproducible data in rodent studies. Academic and industry experts working in preclinical diabetes, fasting induced daily torpor, and regulatory toxicology will address the scientific and welfare implications of restricting food. This webinar will be relevant for all academic, regulatory and industry scientists whose work involves food restriction in rodents.

EBiSC for depositing stem cells

The European Bank for induced pluripotent Stem Cells (EBiSC) is a not‑for‑profit central induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) repository for researchers in academia and industry. We recommend that all NC3Rs grant holders and stakeholders deposit their cells with EBiSC – in our latest blog post, we explore how this can help researchers reduce animal use, save time and resources, and establish a 3Rs legacy for their work.

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Catch up on the latest 3Rs research with this quick monthly podcast, produced by LabAnimal, the NA3RsC and the NC3Rs.

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