The Principles of Weight of Evidence Validation of Test Methods and Testing Strategies: The Report and Recommendations of ECVAM Workshop 58

Michael Balls, Patric Amcoff, Susanne Bremer, Silvia Casati, Sandra Coecke, Richard Clothier, Robert Combes, Raffaella Corvi, Rodger Curren, Chantra Eskes, Julia Fentem, Laura Gribaldo, Marlies Halder, Thomas Hartung, Sebastian Hoffmann, Leonard Schechtman, Laurie Scott, Horst Spielmann, William Stokes, Raymond Tice, Drew Wagner and Valérie Zuang

This is the report of the 58th of a series of workshops organised by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM). The workshop was organised by Michael Balls and Valérie Zuang, and took place on 5–7 May 2004, at the Hotel Lido, Angera (VA), Italy, with participants from academia, industry, research, and national and international validation authorities. The aim was to discuss and define principles and criteria for validation via weight-of-evidence approaches, and to provide guidance on the performance of this type of validation. The outcome of the discussions and the recommendations agreed upon by the workshop participants are summarised in this report, which also takes into account some subsequent events and publications.