Following its successful season of events on openness and transparency, EARA has released a series of videos from its Lisbon event.
Improving Openness in Animal Research in Portugal, at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, highlighted the importance of the Portuguese Transparency Agreement and the need to be proactive in giving the public information on the use of animals in research.
Each of the four speaker’s presentations, plus the panel discussion afterwards was filmed and is featured below. The speakers were:
- Kirk Leech, Executive Director, European Animal Research Association
- Dr. Susana Lima, Neuroscientist and Biologist, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown
- Sara Sá, Science Journalist, Visão
- Dr. Ana Mena, Head of Public Engagement, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC)
The event coincided with the establishment of the Portuguese Transparency Agreement, and Ana Mena, of IGC, one of its member institutions gave examples of how IGC is committed to openness though visits to schools, Open Days, and videos available on their YouTube channel.
EARA devised the events with the aim of helping researchers and institutions that wished to be more open about the animal research they carry out. The intention was not to debate the ethics of animal research, but rather to invite a variety of speakers (researchers, policy, media) to make the argument for the need for greater openness in communication about animal research.
Our thanks to the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS), together with the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), who kindly agreed to support the initiative by EARA.