EARA staff have taken part in the webinar The art of communicating animal research in the 21st century, attended by close to 300 members of the European Co-operation in Science and Technology Action consortium (COST TEATIME). 

Presentations included EARA executive director, Kirk Leech, explaining the current political pressures in the EU; Monique Havermans, looking at the growth of Transparency Agreements on animal research in Europe and globally; Bob Tolliday, examining how good website content can be an effective way to discuss research using animals and Nuno Goncalves, looking at good practice in completing non-technical summaries to give the public a greater understanding of the reasons animals are used.

COST Actions are EU-funded networks that bring together researchers in science and technology to collaborate on a project of their choice for four years and the TEATIME initiative aims to improve the home cage monitoring of rodents used for research, without the stress of removing them from their cages.

COST TEATIME communication and dissemination leader, Masa Cater, PhD, said: “It was pleasing to see such a high attendance for our first webinar on this subject. It shows that there is a great desire from technicians and researchers to speak more openly about their use of animals and make the public aware of the important work that is being done.”

A further webinar in the series is planned in March.