More and more testing and research methods that do not involve animal testing are being developed. But it often takes a long time for the scientific world and international regulatory bodies to recognise them. The TPI programme encourages knowledge on the human body to be deployed more effectively in studies and tests, to avoid having to resort to animal testing. To accomplish this, a new benchmark needs to be developed.
Recognition of an animal-free benchmark
With the establishment of this new benchmark, more and more animal tests could be made obsolete. But this would involve changing the entire system, which would take a lot of time and money. The TPI programme is therefore working on aspects including:
- cultural change, for instance through events on animal-free innovations;
- education, by encouraging animal-free educational models;
- new guidelines, which prohibit the use of animal testing if unnecessary.
Innovative animal-free activities
Examples of innovative animal-free activities run by TPI partners include:
- sharing experiences and conducting a dialogue;
- researching and applying breakthroughs in animal-free developments;
- conducting measurements using human models instead of animal models;
- combining artificial intelligence with other animal-testing-free research;
- devising a model for safety evaluations using human data;
- formulating goals for animal-testing-free education and research;
- creating a yardstick (index) for animal-free objectives at research institutes.