The biomedical community in Switzerland has signed a Swiss Transparency Agreement on Animal Research, making it the ninth worldwide and the eighth in Europe.

Created by the STAAR Commission of Swissuniversities, the agreement has 24 signatories from both public and private research, including EARA members SAVIR, SGV and the University of Zurich.

Every signatory organisation agrees to a defined set of commitments, which include, being ‘clear about how and why we use or support the use of animals in research’; communicating with the public; and reporting annually on the progress they have made towards openness.

Professor Elizabeth Stark, vice president research, at the University of Zurich, said: “Research with animals is essential for the progress in biology, human and veterinary medicine – and it will continue to be so in the foreseeable future.

“It is therefore our duty to inform the public openly, transparently and continuously about how and why animals are used in research. This is precisely the goal of STAAR.”

The other eight transparency agreements are in Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain and the UK.

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