Call for Proposals: Science-based Refinement Awards
mke...@westga.edu
The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (is accepting proposals for the 2014 Science-Based Refinement Awards (formerly the Animal Welfare Enhancement Awards).
The award program is designed to elicit scientific evidence that supports the enhancement of housing, handling, and/or experimental situations for laboratory animals. Studies may, for example, examine how physiological and behavioral stress responses to common husbandry and traditional treatment procedures can be reduced or eliminated; whether animals caged at different tier levels show different physiological and behavioral stress responses when being approached by personnel, and how those responses can be minimized or avoided; whether the presence of a compatible companion buffers physiological and behavioral stress responses to experimental situations (e.g., enforced restraint); and whether animals kept in legally minimum-sized cages benefit from a moderate increase in space that is (a) empty versus (b) structured in species-appropriate ways (e.g., shelter, visual blind, perch, platform, PVC tube).
Any studies undertaken must be non-invasive, with the possible exception of obtaining blood for biochemical measurements (animals that have been trained to cooperate during venipuncture should be used, if possible). Objective measures might include behavior, coat appearance, body weight, analysis of feces, urine, or blood as described above. Priority will be given to studies that have broad applicability.
Grants of up to $6,000 per project will be awarded.