A position statement can help an institution be open and transparent about why and how it uses animals in its biomedical research. This can help pre-empt questions from the public or media, it can provide a basis for replying to news stories, and it shows its researchers that it is proud of the important work they do. For this reason we believe all institutions should have a public statement (see ours).
With the help of our readers we’ve been creating a list of the position statements. This list currently encompasses 161 research institutions including universities, pharmaceuticals, medical research charities and funding bodies.
Check if your institution is on the list
| Country | Number of web statements |
Number of institutions doing animal research |
| Canada | 4 | More than 4 |
| Germany | 7 | More than 7 |
| Netherlands | 1 | More than 1 |
| Switzerland | 2 | More than 2 |
| United Kingdom | 76 | More than 76 |
| United States | 56 | More than 56 |
| International | 15 | More than 15 |
Clearly our list is incomplete (though to the UK’s credit, their list of web statements accounts for a significant proportion of institutions doing animal research). This is partly because our list is missing some existing statements, and partly because some institutions do not have a statement. We need your help to expand the list.
To that end, we’ve made a handy flow chart to help you work out what to do once you’ve checked if your institution is on our list.
Find our article ‘What makes a good animal research statement‘ here. Also, take a look at some of these exemplary position statements and webpages about animal research:
- University of Wisconsin-Madison – Why Animal Research Matters (US)
- Imperial College London – Animal research at Imperial (UK)
- Novartis – Animals & Research (International)
- Parkinson’s UK – Policy statement: Use of animals in research (UK)
Speaking of Research
Speaking of Research 