European scientists continue to support an EU roadmap to accelerate the transition to non-animal science

10 July 2023

In the space of a week, 80 European scientists from 14 EU countries have signed an open letter calling on the European Commission and Member States to commit to establishing an EU roadmap to accelerate the transition to non-animal science.

The transition to non-animal science can offer more effective and accurate humane solutions for biomedical research and regulatory testing, and has been acknowledged by the European Commission, EU agencies, the cosmetics, chemical, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, the consumer goods sector, and academia as an important step in tackling the health and environmental issues that threaten society today. This transition is overwhelmingly supported by Members of the European Parliament and EU citizens, and is in line with the European Union’s objective to fully replace the use of animals in science.

To achieve improved human health and environmental protection, it is essential to coordinate EU efforts and policies that facilitate and prioritise the transition to non-animal science in all EU research, innovation and education initiatives. Clear short-, medium-, and long-term actions are needed to guide and accelerate the adoption of innovative non-animal approaches while phasing-out animal-based methods. In addition, a coordinated European Research Area (ERA) initiative can revolutionise the scientific landscape by supporting innovation, research infrastructure, and knowledge sharing to train and inspire scientists, educators, students and regulators in the use of non-animal approaches.

The undersigned call on the European Commission and the Member States to establish an EU roadmap and launch an ERA action. This initiative should include concrete milestones, cross-sector support, open science principles, dedicated funding and harmonised education and training initiatives to accelerate the transition to non-animal research, regulatory testing and education.

If you are an EU academic or scientist and wish to sign this open letter, please follow this link.

List of signatories: 

Name:	Position:	Affiliation:	Country:	Suggestions:
Martin Paparella	Senior Researcher	Medical University Innsbruck	Austria
Bernard GODELLE	University professor	University of Montpellier	France
Penny Nymark	Assistant Professor	Karolinska Institutet	Sweden	In parallel with development of non-animal methods, known as New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) within chemical risk assessment, it is also paramount that all generated data in science is made Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR)! Besides being a non-animal method in itself, reuse of data is the only way we can move into an era of machine-driven and AI-supported predictive chemical risk assessment without the reliance on animal testing.
Pranjul Shah	Head of the Incubator	University of Luxembourg	Luxembourg
Mario Rothbauer	Group Leader	Medical University of Vienna – Dpt. Ortho Trauma Surgery	Austria
Dania Movia	Assistant Professor	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
Prof. Dr. Stefan Dübel	Head, Dept. of Biotechnology	Technische Universität Braunschweig	Germany
Ashwani Sharma	Co-founder	Insight Biosolutions	France	Hello, I agree that we need alternative methods than animal testing as using like human in vitro models can give better results than animal testing.
Janneke Hogervorst, PhD	Postdoctoral researcher	Hasselt University	Belgium	For many areas of research, animal testing is known to have very limited validity. We don’t need to first develop non-animal methods there; we should just end animal experiments there right now and spend our limited resources on other research. We need more systematic reviews into the validity of animal experiments, rather than treat animal experiments as the gold standard that we need to find replacements for. Ending what doesn’t work is innovation too.
Love Hansell	PhD Researcher	Radboud University	Sweden
Bas van Balkom	Asst Professor	UMC Utrecht	The Netherlands
Margherita Scarpa	Engeneer	Institut Jacques Monod	France
Federica Emiliani	Lecturer	InHolland University of Applied Sciences	The Netherlands	Investing even more in in vitro/silico modelling
Birgit Goversen	Postdoctoral researcher	Amsterdam UMC	The Netherlands	– More funds for the improvement of current NAMs – A focus on understanding, supporting and convincing stakeholders; not on forcing them to use NAMs
Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga	Prof. in Evidence-Based Transition to Animal-Free Innovations	Utrecht University	The Netherlands	Setting goals is key, just like we do for the economy. The science and technology ARE here to move to non-animal science. By teaming up with social sciences and key stakeholders we can accelerate and strive towards ending animal testing by 2035.
Rosalinde Masereeuw	Full professor	Utrecht University	The Netherlands	Make sure everybody is on-board, we can only make the transition together.
Mathieu Vinken	ONTOX coordinator/university professor	Vrije Universiteit Brussel	Belgium
Koen Kramer	Researcher animal ethics	Wageningen University & Research	The Netherlands
AC van Veen	Postdoc	Radboud University	The Netherlands
Tuula Heinonen	Professor	Tampere University	Finland	Regulators give acceptance criteria for approving non-animal methods to predict safety (all chemicals) for all end points and efficacy (drugs)
Julia D Zajac	Project manager	Vrije Universiteit Brussel	Belgium
Sonja von Aulock	Editor in chief, CEO	ALTEX – Alternatives to Animal Experimentation	Germany
Tobias Theska	PhD Student	Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen	Germany
Ingeborg Eva Reihs	Doctoral candidate	Medical University of Vienna	Austria	More specific funding for absolute animal-free and clean science, method establishment. Awards for absolute animal-free approaches and more critical thinking about so-called animal-free research.
Alicia Paini	Senior Toxicologist	esqLABS GmbH	Italy
Eliska Kuchovska	postdoctoral researcher	IUF – Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine	Germany
Marina Garcia de Lomana	Research Scientist	Bayer AG	Germany
Job Berkhout	PhD Student	UU, RIVM	The Netherlands
Domenico Gadaleta	Scientific Consultant	Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri – IRCCS	Italy
Katharina Koch	Postdoctoral Researcher	IUF – Leibniz-Research Institute for Environmental Medicine	Germany	More interaction between researchers, the regulatory bodies and the industry. ECHA for example! More case studies supported by the regulatory bodies and indurtry. More guidance on the use of PBTK in POD estimation.
Erwin L Roggen	CEO and WP6 leader of the ONTOX project	3Rs Management and Consulting ApS	Denmark	Willingness to change and courage to embrace innovation in practice, not only words.
Ellen Fritsche	Professor	DNTOX GmbH	Germany	Establish case studies involving different stakeholders and compare classical risk assessment to NAM-based risk assessment.
Helena Kandarova	ESTIV President, Director of UEFT CEM SAS	ESTIV and Slovak Academy of Science	Slovakia	Please try to harmonize legistlation accorst various sectors so that animal testing is not requested in areas, where replacements are availabe (e.g. medical devices, pesticides, pharmaceuticals)
Alessio Gamba	Postdoc researcher	VPH institute and University of Liege	Belgium
Jeffrey Bajramovic	Director 3Rs Centre Utrecht	Utrecht University	The Netherlands
PD Dr.-Ing. Joachim Wiest	Adjunct professor	Technical University of Munich	Germany
Nicolas Bayer	Master Student	RPTU Kaiserslautern	Germany	ethically based funding!!!
Christiane Spruck	PhD student	IUF	Germany
Florian Caiment	Associate Professor	Maastricht University	The Netherlands
Andreas Schiwy	PostDoc, Teamleader	Goethe University	Germany	The advancement of chemical defined media for culture of cells, replacement of animal derived products like fetal bovine serum as well as rat liver S9 with biotechnological alternatives. The development of physiological media to sustain cell lines that show similar reaction compared to the human body.
Liliana Moreira Teixeira	Assistant professor	University of Twente	The Netherlands
busuqet	ceo	altertox	Belgium
John Grin	Full professor in the governance of transitions	University of Amsterdam	The Netherlands
Huub Schellekens	Emeritus Professor	Utrecht University	The Netherlands
Esther Wenzel	COO	Abcalis GmbH	Germany
Tamara Vanhaecke	Professor	Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Faculty of Medicine & Pharmacy	Belgium
Maria Tsamou	Chief Scientific Officer	ToxGenSolutions	The Netherlands
Emilio Benfenati	Head of Department	Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri	Italy
Wouter Dhert	Professor and Scientific Director Innovation in Life Sciences	Utrecht University	The Netherlands
Daniela Salvatori	Professsor Anatomy and Physiology, Chairperson Animal-free Innovation Utrecht University	Utrecht University	The Netherlands	Education (interprofessioanl education) and creation of a community able to go through the necessary changes
Hanna Dusza	Postdoctoral researcher	Utrecht University	The Netherlands
Annalisa Gastaldello	Project Officer	European Commission	Italy
Konstantina	PhD student	VU Amsterdam	The Netherlands	Allocating funds to research aimed at developing in vitro methods modeling animal testing.
Jakob (Jaap) Heringa	Professor Bioinformatics	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	The Netherlands	FAIR data infrastructure; Digital twin
Jos Joore	CEO	Mimetas	The Netherlands
Victoria Marincheva	Assist. Prof.	University of Forestry Sofia	Bulgaria
Iliyan Manev	Assos. Prof. in Immunology	Faculty of Veterinary medicine, University of Forestry	Bulgaria
Eckhard von Keutz	Consultant	Independent	Germany	A concrete working plan which contains the deliverables and the associated timelines. Leadership and commitment are needed to execute on the roadmap.
Jiayi Yang	PhD candidate	Utrecht University	The Netherlands
Silvia Scaglione	Chief Scientist, President of React4life	React4life	Italy
Kamile Jovaisaite	Scientific Sales Representative	STEMCELL Technologies	The Netherlands
Madalena Cipriano	Senior Scientist	University of Tübingen	Germany
Benoît Maisonneuve	CSO	NETRI	France	4 steps are necessary IMO: 1 – funding to develop and validate NAMs with clinical data, 2 – access to the clinical data (usually confidential), 3 – a regulatory framework to develop NAMs, and of course 4 – a legislative evolution of the European regulation (concerning drug developement etc) similar to what has been done in the USA and in India.
Luiz Ladeira	Postdoctoral researcher	Liège Université	Belgium
Erwin L Roggen	CEO	ToxGenSolutions BV	The Netherlands	Wiilingness and confidence based on scientific data in stead of believe.
Eva Bernet Kempers	postdoctoral researcher	University of Antwerp	Belgium
Line Mathiesen	Associate Professor	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
Ellen Fritsche	Prof.	IUF	Germany
Costanza Rovida	Scientific Officer	CAAT-Europe	Germany
Christian Maass	Principal Scientist, Lead Digital Organ-on-Chip Platform	esqLABS	Germany	Coordination with roadmap on standardization from CEN/CENELEC
Timea Gandek	Phd student	University of Groningen	The Netherlands
Ramiro Jover	Professor	University of Valencia	España
Kathrin Herrmann	Senior Associate	Johns Hopkins University Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT)	Germany
Rafael Gozalbes	CEO	ProtoQSAR SL	SPAIN
Arno Gutleb	Managing Director	INVITROLIZE sarl	Luxembourg
Hubert Dirven	Department Director Chemical toxicology	Norwegian Institute of Public Health	Norway	Legislation for chemicals need to be revised
Dr Brett A. Lidbury	Associate Professor	NCEPH – The Australian National University	Australia	We need a centre like ECVAAM to support non-animal innovation for biomedical research.
Thomas Luechtefeld	CEO	ToxTrack Inc	United States
James Rathman	Professor	Ohio State University	USA
Yanitza Trosel	Researcher	Sunnybrook Research Institute	Canada	Start using mimic organ environments to test more basic system, then start increasing the complexity.
Pandora Pound	Research Director	Safer Medicines Trust	UK
Brigitte Franke-Bray	Independent Consultant Pharmaceutical Medicine	Freelance	Switzerland
Pelin Candarliogu	Independent Consultant on the use of NAMS	3D and 3Rs	UK	Standardisation guidelines followed with a qualification framework for specific context of use and independent test centres that will evaluate and qualify different NAMs for regulatory acceptance
Dr Lilas Courtot	Science Manager	Animal Free Research UK	United-Kingdom
Francesca Pistollato	Senior Strategist – Biomedical science	HSI Europe	Italy	The transition towards human-relevant non-animal methods and models will help increase societal impact of funded research, in order to make scientific results really useful and translatable to human diseases and physiology.
Manuela Cassotta	Biologist Medical writer	OSA (Oltre la Sperimentazione Animale)	Italy
Dr. Christiane Hohensee	Subject specialist for Animal-free Research Methods	Federal Association ip People for Animal Rights	Germany

Regards Mark