Radboud University: NWA funding for research on transition to animal-free models in safety assessment

An international consortium receives funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) to research how the acceleration of the transition to animal-free safety assessment can be governed. The consortium will be headed by Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers of Radboud University.

The funding is part of the programme ‘Non-animal models: acceptance and implementation’ of the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA). In total, three research consortia will receive this subsidy. The projects focus on the underlying causes of societal barriers, the acceptance of existing animal-free models by end-users and regulators, and the values of stakeholders and institutions on data from animal-free models. A budget of €955,000 has been set aside for each project.

Accelerating the transition to animal-free NGRA: A transformative governance approach
This research project was developed by Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers, Professor of Environmental Governance and Politics at Radboud University and Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga, Professor of Evidence-based transition to animal-free innovations at Utrecht University. It analyzes how the acceleration of the transition to animal-free safety assessment can be governed. The project focuses on Next Generation Risk Assessment (NGRA), and analyzes the transitions to animal-free safety assessment for chemicals and pharmaceuticals in the EU, the Netherlands, and the USA. The transdisciplinary consortium will experiment with transformative governance approaches through action research.