Objective Using animals for research is a privilege granted by society to scientists on the explicit understanding that such use will provide significant new knowledge, and no unnecessary harm will be imposed on the animals. However, a high prevalence of abnormal behaviour and other signs of distress in animals housed under standard laboratory conditions, and poor reproducibility of experimental results, suggest that current practice needs to improve to guarantee sound science. Recently we have shown in mice that standard housing conditions may interfere with behavioural control mechanisms expressed as overt behavioural disorders. These findings question both the animals’ welfare and the validity of research conducted with them. Furthermore, we have shown that current practice of standardisation may compromise the external validity of experimental results, resulting in poor reproducibility and spurious results. The overall hypothesis underlying this project is that both impaired welfare and poor reproducibility are caused by a failure to account for fundamental principles of phenotypic plasticity, whereby animal welfare is impaired when the animals’ adaptive plasticity is overtaxed, and reproducibility is compromised when phenotypic variation is standardised away. Based on this framework, the project, therefore, aims to systematically assess environmental effects on the welfare of laboratory animals and on the validity and reproducibility of animal experiments, using the mouse as a model species. The new results should greatly advance our understanding of environmental effects on the quality of life of laboratory animals and on the quality of science conducted with them. They should help to reconcile laboratory animal science with the biological principles of phenotypic plasticity, thereby providing significant new knowledge for effective Refinement of animal research. This should benefit the science as well as the animals in the best meaning of the 3R concept. Fields of science agricultural sciencesanimal and dairy science Programme(s) FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) ERC-AG-LS8 - ERC Advanced Grant - Evolutionary, population and environmental biology Call for proposal ERC-2012-ADG_20120314 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-AG - ERC Advanced Grant Host institution UNIVERSITAET BERN EU contribution € 1 333 140,00 Address HOCHSCHULSTRASSE 6 3012 Bern Switzerland See on map Region Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Espace Mittelland Bern / Berne Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Maddalena Tognola (Ms.) Principal investigator Hanno Würbel (Prof.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Beneficiaries (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all UNIVERSITAET BERN Switzerland EU contribution € 1 333 140,00 Address HOCHSCHULSTRASSE 6 3012 Bern See on map Region Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Espace Mittelland Bern / Berne Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Maddalena Tognola (Ms.) Principal investigator Hanno Würbel (Prof.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data
