EPAA Annual Conference 2021: How can EPAA help the successful implementation of the EU chemical strategy for sustainability

The European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA) organises an annual conference where updates on the EPAA's achievements are presented and winners of prizes are announced.​​​​The EPAA Annual Conference took place on 27 October 2021.

At this event, we gave participants insight into EPAA's achievements in 2021, announced the EPAA Refinement Prize winner, and discussed our role in the EU chemical strategy for sustainability.

See the programme.

2021 Refinement Prize winner

The EPAA Refinement Prize winner, announced during the annual conference, will receive €6000. Every other year we grant this prize to a laboratory technician, animal caretaker or technologist who has demonstrated outstanding achievements in new, novel approaches to advance implementation and/or awareness-raising of refinement of animal testing.

Refinement is one of the 3Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement of testing on animals). Refinement refers to modifying any procedure, husbandry and care practices with laboratory animals throughout their entire lifetime to minimise pain and distress and enhance their well-being.

This prize targets those implementing alternative approaches to animal testing and/or raising awareness about their role for the day to day application and innovation of the refinement principles in particular.

In 2021, the EPAA secretariat received nine high-calibre applications via the EPAA selection committee.
Inês Mendes Preguiça from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra in Portugal received the highest score. Her case study HaPILLness focuses on 'Precise voluntary oral drug dosing in rodents – an innovative 3Rs approach'.

Thomas Bertlessen and Lisa Ernst were both recognised as runners-up.

3Rs Science Prize 2020 winner

Dr. Viviana Meraviglia from the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands is the winner of the 3Rs Science Prize 2020. Her work focused on 'Three-dimensional multicell-type human induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (hiPSC)-cardiac microtissues: a novel platform to study cardiac disease, cardiotoxicity and drug efficacy relevant to humans in vitro'. See her case study under 'Documents' below or visit the 3Rs awards and grants page.

Background

The conference took place online from 14.00 - 17.00 (CEST) on Wednesday, 27 October 2021. EPAA members, representatives of European and international institutions, academics, NGOs, national regulatory authorities, etc. were invited to join.

Video

Documents

Disclaimer: Views expressed in these documents are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the European Commission.

• EPAA Annual Conference 2021 report

Presentations

• EPAA at a glance
• Chemical strategy for sustainability
• European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals

2021 Refinement Prize winner presentation and runner-up case studies

• 3Rs Awards and grants Refinement prize winner - HaPILLness - Inês Mendes Preguiça (winner)
• Training and habituation of pigs - Thomas Bertlesen (runner-up)
• A multimodal approach to refine large animal experiments - Lisa Ernst (runner-up)

2020 Science Prize case study

• Three-dimensional multicell-type human induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (hiPSC)-cardiac microtissues - Viviana Meraviglia (winner)