3Rs - search page

Replacing Animal Research (Formally FRAME) carries out both lab-based and office-based research. Click on the links  for more information.

This website provides a series of resources to support the adoption of best practice for commonly used procedures in animal research.

The RSPCA  strongly promote fuller implementation of all 3Rs, and they recognise the work done by other bodies to develop and validate humane alternatives, and to address the current crisis with reproducibility and translatability in the life sciences.

• Replacement: methods which avoid or replace animal use - our principal goal

• Reduction: ensuring that the minimum number of animals is used to answer the scientific question, using effective experimental design and statistical analysis to optimise numbers and avoid wasting animals

• Refinement: reducing suffering and improving welfare throughout animals' lives, including procedures, housing, husbandry and care

Over the last two years, representatives from the UK’s stroke research community have been working, in a collaboration led by the NC3Rs, to improve the welfare and increase the scientific value of rodent models of stroke. The findings from the collaboration - The IMPROVE Guidelines (Ischaemia Models: Procedural Refinements Of in Vivo Experiments)  have been published in the Journal of Cerebral Bloodflow and Metabolism.

INFRAFRONTIER is the European Research Infrastructure for phenotyping and archiving of model mammalian genomes. The INFRAFRONTIER Research Infrastructure provides access to first-class tools and data for biomedical research, and thereby contributes to improving the understanding of gene function in human health and disease using the mouse model.