Research*EU Magazine | Number 46 (October 2015)

Can science do without animal testing?

Summary:

‘Animal testing is bad science.’ The slogan, defended by the biggest international organisation for the ethical treatment of animals (PETA) is well ingrained in citizens’ minds. In June, an EU-wide campaign to ban experiments on animals from all European labs gathered an impressive 1.17 million signatures. This result made the proposal eligible for examination by the EC under the European Citizens’ Initiative which, when positive, can lead to a legislative proposal.

In December, the six FP7 projects in the SEURAT-1 cluster — a EUR 50 million initiative focused on the cosmetics industry to improve in vitro testing and identify obstacles to its successful adoption — will come to an end. Early results from some of these projects are covered in the special section of this magazine, and what exudes from the interviews is a firm belief that the research efforts undertaken by these projects will benefit sectors beyond just the cosmetics industry. Other, non-SEURAT-1 projects are also discussed, including the work of a Lithuanian SME which was recently granted Horizon 2020 funding for a new biosynthetic hydrogel which they hope will significantly reduce the need for animal testing.

Contents:

Health

Industrial Technologies

Society

Climate Change and Environment

Digital Economy

Energy

• Primary Source

• Alternative Source