An opinion article on The Transmitter, by EARA Executive Director Kirk Leech, argues that involving patients can build support for animal research, focusing on non-human primate (NHP) research and its critical role for neuroscience.
Despite accounting for less than one percent of all animal research procedures in Europe, NHP research draws much scrutiny. In 2025, it was at the centre of policy discussions in the Netherlands that put essential life-saving research at risk, making openness and transparency around NHP research more urgent than ever.
Through EARA’s Patient Discovery Project, people living with a condition meet the researchers who study it. On these visits, called Discovery Days, participants tour animal research facilities, watch experiments and sit down with scientists to ask questions.
On a visit in the Netherlands, Monique Bosman, who lives with Parkinson’s disease, arrived unsure about NHP research. Later, she said: “I was very surprised to see the really good living conditions, that the monkeys live in groups, and they actually have a better space and surroundings than in many zoos.” While the participants form small, self-selected groups, the impact is consistent. People who start out uneasy, or opposed, tend to leave informed and supportive of the use of animals in research.
These visits affect the researchers, too. For Isabel Sola, who co-leads the coronavirus group at the Spanish National Centre for Biotechnology, a Discovery Day on long COVID helped her understand which symptoms mattered most to people living with the condition. “That allows us to prioritize the right questions and reconsider what we analyze in our animal models,” said the researcher.
Kirk Leech described how EARA plans to build on these visits: “Our next step is to make this kind of engagement continuous rather than occasional. EARA is building a Patient Network to turn one-off visits into sustained dialogues that shape how researchers design studies and what politicians and the public hear, not only from scientists researching a disease but from people living with it.”
Leech urged: “That is why we need you, neuroscientists, to take this opportunity to open your facility, explain your research and let those who live with the diseases you study see your work.”
Diabetes researcher from NOVA Medical School, Portugal, shows how mice used to study blood glucose regulation, memory changes and metabolic processes associated with diabetes are kept in laboratory. CREDIT: João Balsa/NOVA Medical School