European Funding for Research

Horizon Europe is the research and innovation funding program launched by the European Commission which runs until 2027. At the moment, there are two main calls related to the implementation of the 3Rs Principle and implementation of NAMs:

• Innovative non-animal human-based tools and strategies for biomedical research: proposals should contribute to the development of more human-relevant tools that help to reduce the number of live animals used in biomedical research. Deadlines: 19/09/2023 (first stage) and 11/04/2024 (second stage).
• Gaining experience and confidence in New Approach Methodologies (NAM) for regulatory safety and efficacy testing – coordinated training and experience exchange for regulators: proposals should help bridge the gap between NAMs developers and users by developing a framework on how to assess the safety of chemicals based on NAM-data. Ideally, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) should be involved in the proposal. Deadline: 11/04/2024.

European 3R Grants and Prizes

• The European Partnership for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EPAA) also offers three different prizes to reward initiatives and research projects contributing to the implementation of 3Rs (EPAA Refinement Prize, 3Rs Student Grant and 3Rs Science Prize).
• Norecopa (Norway) offers a yearly 3Rs prize to acknowledge any scientific, technical, or administrative work which contributed to raising awareness on the use of 3Rs Principle.
• The Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) in Germany provides funding to replace animal experiments with alternative methods and to increase the attractiveness of the field of animal experiment replacement methods for researchers, as well as to strengthen the validation, utilization and dissemination of animal experiment alternative methods that have already been developed. Applications are in German.
• The Willy Van Heumen Prize (The Netherlands) is awarded every two years to a researcher from a Dutch organisation working in the field of 3Rs. The aim is to stimulate even more this research and to encourage the government to provide more fundings for this purpose.
• With the Belgian Council Laboratory Animal Science(BCLAS) 3R’s Fund in honour of Jean René Maisin, BCLAS offers funding for projects from Belgian institutes with an obvious link with the BCLAS mission that serves the purpose of stimulating and developing ethical and responsible care and use of laboratory animals. For 2023, research projects in scope of the fund should show a contribution to the replacement and/or reduction of laboratory animal care and/or use. For this purpose, BCLAS will make available an amount of 10,000 EUR. This amount can either be awarded to one project or divided over several projects, meeting the scope and assessment criteria. Applicants can apply for this funding by sending the completed Application Form (to be retrieved from https://www.bclas.org/) via e-mail to admin@bclas.org by 15^th of November 2023. By submitting project winning applicant(s) agree to present results during the next BCLAS Symposium. The Board will make the final decision by 15^th of January 2024 in order to ensure the awarded funding can be made available by the end of February 2024 to the project winning applicant(s).

International 3R Grants and Prizes

• The National Centre for the 3Rs (NC3Rs) in the U.K. organises project grants and CRACK IT challenges with the support of industry aiming to push the development and commercialisation of new technologies. They also award a yearly International 3Rs prize to a researcher who has contributed to a major breakthrough in the field of 3Rs and PhD studentships.
• The Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC International) in Switzerland has a Global 3Rs Awards Program to recognize significant innovative contributions toward the 3Rs of animal research to advance ethical science.
• The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) in the U.S. provides the Alan and Helene Goldberg In Vitro Toxicology Grants as initial funding for scientists to develop alternatives to the use of animals in biomedical research and product safety testing.
• The Alternatives Research & Development Foundation (ARDF) in the U.S. offers its Annual Grant Program to fund research projects focussing on the development of innovative alternative methods to replace or reduce animal use in research, testing, or education.
• The International Foundation for Ethical Research (IFER) in the U.S. provides one-year grants for projects that support the development, acceptance and implementation of innovative scientific methodologies that advance science and reduce or replace the use of animals in research, testing or education.

Support from animal welfare organisations

• The FRAME innovation grant in the U.K. aims at supporting projects which contribute to the replacement of animal testing, with a particular interest in innovative ideas and techniques.
• Animal Research Tomorrow (Switzerland) is providing two prizes: the 3R Award which recognizes innovative ideas from young scientists in the field of the 3Rs and the Scicomm Award which supports young science communicators who develop tools and strategies to increase transparency in animal research.  
• PETA Science Consortium International, ARDF, and the Physician Committee for Responsible Medicine offers a Grant for the use of recombinant antibodies to replace animal-derived antibodies in current research and testing strategies. The challenge is open to scientists from all research fields (academy, industry, and government) who can use the recombinant antibodies for their in vitro applications of interest.

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