£20k prize for best paper with 3Rs impact

The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) is seeking nominations for its 2011 3Rs prize with a total value of £20k.

This annual award is given for a piece of primary research published in any peer reviewed journal in the last three years (between September 2008 and September 2011) that significantly advances, or has the potential to advance, one or more of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction or Refinement). It is open to UK-based researchers in academia or industry.

The prize is sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline and consists of a £18k grant and a £2k personal award. Further details of the prize and the nomination process can be found at www.nc3rs.org.uk/3Rsprize. The deadline for applications is 25 November 2011 and the prize is awarded in January at a high-profile ceremony in London.

The body would be especially interested to receive nominations for papers describing work whose 3Rs implications may not yet have been fully recognised.

Past winners have included papers describing: new ways of handling laboratory mice to reduce stress; a method for developing embryonic stem cells that could reduce the numbers of animals required for the creation of genetically altered mice used to study diabetes; and the use of retinal tissue culture to replace the need for experiments on live animals in developing glaucoma treatments.

These examples illustrate the high quality and diversity of the work that the contest aims to recognise and reward, and demonstrate that application of the 3Rs principles can lead to improvements in the quality and quantity of scientific outputs.  

Archived Nov 7, 2011