Å·²©ÓÎÏ·µÇ¼ƽ̨

‘Culture of Care’ is a term that describes an establishment-wide commitment to improving animal welfare, scientific quality, and care of the staff.

In the use of animals for research, the Å·²©ÓÎÏ·µÇ¼ƽ̨’s Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body (AWERB) is tasked with defining core values to promote a good ‘Culture of Care’. These Culture of Care commitments are based on the outputs of a workshop conducted at the Å·²©ÓÎÏ·µÇ¼ƽ̨ which included input from a range of personnel including AWERB members, researchers, animal care staff, and students.

The Å·²©ÓÎÏ·µÇ¼ƽ̨ is committed to:

Improving animal care and welfare

Caring for staff

Delivering high-quality science

Promoting transparency for all

Improving animal care and welfare

We will:

• Treat all animals with dignity, compassion, and respect, and ensure animal welfare and animal feelings are central to decisions being made
• Improve animal welfare by providing environments that allow them to perform natural behaviours and using positive reinforcement training
• Value the animal-human bond and encourage positive interactions where these are beneficial to both animals and staff
• Rehome animals wherever possible
• Ensure all those working with animals are educated, trained, and kept up to date with best practices

Caring for staff

We will:

• Respect and understand the roles of all staff and students when using animals in research
• Promote a culture of inclusiveness, compassion, care, and respect for all people, and provide appropriate support for the mental and emotional welfare of staff
• Create a culture that encourages engagement between researchers and animal care staff and ensure that staff and students have the confidence to challenge practices and suggest improvements
• Educate staff working with animals in research and teaching about our Culture of Care values and practices
• Update our knowledge and best practice by enabling access to continuing development and training

Delivering high-quality science

We will:

• Recognise the importance of Culture of Care in robust scientific outcomes
• Carry out research that embraces the principles of reproducibility and good study design
• Ensure a true understanding of the 3Rs and that they are implemented wherever possible
• Only use animals where necessary and actively seek to replace animals with alternatives wherever possible
• Carry out a detailed ethical review of all research studies and ensure that all research at the Å·²©ÓÎÏ·µÇ¼ƽ̨ is justified and aligns with our core values

Transparency for all

We will:

• Ensure people within and beyond Å·²©ÓÎÏ·µÇ¼ƽ̨ understand what we do and why
• Create an environment for open discussion and positive, effective communication between researchers, students, and animal care staff
• Be open about and provide regular updates on our ethical review processes and Culture of Care practices and initiatives and encourage feedback from animal care staff, researchers, and management
• Give feedback on project outcomes to all staff to enable them to better understand the purposes and benefits of the animal use they are supporting
• Maintain and communicate our culture and values through our interactions with external researchers to enable science delivery in a manner that meets our vision.