As many students and faculty begin the new academic year, there is a resolution that all of us need. To be more open about animal research and how we are involved in it.
Possible ways to get involved:
Small effort (1 – 5 minutes):
- Talk to friends and family about your job. Explain why animal research is important.
- Check if your institution discusses animal research and make sure we have their position statement on our list.
- Check if your department website has a link to Speaking of Research – if not, ask them to add one.
- Share and like our posts on Facebook and Twitter.
- Follow us on LinkedIn and Google +.
Bigger effort (20 – 60 minutes):
We need your help – we need more people to get involved in writing for us – this can be through guest posts or by joining the committee and writing from within. Articles are generally 400 – 1200 words in length and can be . We need help writing about:
- Animal research news – explaining some of the latest breakthroughs in research e.g. The animal research behind the new RSV vaccine
- Your research – why animal models are important to your research e.g. Dr Morland discussing her research
- Outreach – How are you, or your institution helping to engage the public on this issue e.g. Michael Brunt discussing the University of Guelph’s animal research outreach program
- Animal Welfare – How does your lab try to improve animal welfare? How do you implement the 3Rs? e.g. Zebrafish welfare
- Debunking bad science – by explaining the flaw in animal rights arguments e.g. Why Adverse Drug Reactions are not an argument against animal research
Could you provide photographs of animals from your lab – we need to show the world what animal research looks like. We will use them to help show the high standards of welfare in labs across the world.
Large effort:
Have you considered joining the Speaking of Research committee. We ask that committee members provide a guest post for SR before they join. We are looking for keen scientists and animal welfare staff from across the world to help us keep ahead of the latest developments, support us in writing material for the website, and generally contribute to keeping Speaking of Research an organisation that can make a difference.
So what are you waiting for, tear yourself away from your research paper and get involved with helping our work in explaining the important role of animals in medical research.
Thanks
Speaking of Research
Speaking of Research 