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3RS Student grants 2026: call for submissions

The European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA) supports students and young scientists with outstanding work in the field of alternative approaches to attend a high-profile scientific event.

Every year, a number of high-profile international meetings bring together world-class scientists working on the development and acceptance of 3R alternatives to animal testing (Replacement, Reduction or Refinement). Costs linked to participation may prevent students with promising work or young scientists at the beginning of their careers from attending these events. The EPAA partners are therefore happy to sponsor the 3Rs Student grants to facilitate the participation of students and young scientists in such events.

A jury will assess the applications and propose a list of selected candidates to the EPAA Steering Committee. The jury will be composed of 4 members (two from the Industry and two from the European Commission) who will judge.

In 2026, two full grants of 1000€ for SETAC Europe 2026, ESTIV 2026 and EUROTOX 2026 are available.

All grants cover the reimbursement of the event registration fees for the student/young scientist as well as travel and accommodation fees, on the basis of the expense receipts. Payment will be made after the event.

Eligibility

Eligibility criteria for both students and events are defined as follows. Applications falling out of this scope will not be accepted.

Students

  1. Applicants have to be based (i.e. studying) in one of the 27 EU countries or the UK. Citizenship may be from any country (i.e. also outside of the EU).
  2. Applicants must have already graduated (BSc / First cycle completed with at least 180 ECTS credits) when applying. They can not have a doctoral degree.
  3. Applicants must still be considered as full-time students or young scientists (35 years old or younger) when applying.
  4. Young scientists employed by industry are not eligible.
  5. No funding or reimbursement by another entity for the same student and event is allowed.

Events

Selected high-profile scientific meetings are eligible for the EPAA 3Rs Student grants. For 2026, the following events are open for application.

EVENT Deadline for the application

SETAC Europe 36th Annual Meeting in Maastricht, the Netherlands (17-21 May 2026) 5 March 2026

ESTIV 2026 in Maastricht, the Netherlands (29 June - 2 July 2026) 20 March 2026

EUROTOX 2025 in Vienna, Austria (13-16 September 2026) 15 May 2026

Application and selection process

Please send your application to grow-epaaatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (grow‐epaa[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu) by midnight of the application deadline for the event you would like to attend.

The grant will be awarded provided your abstract is accepted for an oral presentation. At the sole discretion of the jury, work presented in a poster format will be eligible in exceptional cases. The EPAA's visibility must be guaranteed by including a clear acknowledgement of support in the presentation/poster.

The jury will make its selection based on the following documents provided by the applicant

  • an abstract submitted for one of the selected events
  • a detailed CV of the applicant, including a list of publications (if any)
  • a cover letter describing why the work outlined in the abstract is important for the 3Rs and why it should be supported by the EPAA grant
  • a recommendation letter from a professor/supervisor, which also confirms the applicant is a full-time student
  • proof of acceptance to the event (i.e. invitation to the event or confirmation email). This can be submitted after the deadline

All of these documents should be sent in a single pdf file. If you have any questions, please contact GROW-EPAAatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (GROW-EPAA[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

EPAA recognition

The winner of the grant agrees to give recognition to EPAA in their presentation/poster. The winner is required to provide proof which clearly shows him or her giving recognition to EPAA (e.g. a photo or a video with an oral statement). 

The winner of the grant also accepts that the EPAA may publish the abstracts of the presentation/poster on its website after the event, to promote and disseminate the research.  A short summary report of the event and how the student benefitted from the participation needs to be provided.

About EPAA

EPAA is a public-private partnership across 7 industry sectors and between the European Commission and industry stakeholders. Launched in 2005, it gathers 41 companies, 9 European trade federations and 5 Directorates-General of the Commission.

More information