The Funding of Research on the Three Rs in the EU

In a number of European countries, notably Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, there has been a significant commitment to research designed to achieve one or more of the Three Rs. This work has been funded by industry, by government, and by the animal welfare movement. The cosmetic industry, ZEBET in Germany and the Dutch Platform in The Netherlands, and FRAME in the UK, deserve particular mention. The European Commission also plays a major role, in two main ways. Firstly, research is supported via DGXII, particularly through programmes such as BRIDGE, BIOTECH and BIOMED in the Third and Fourth Framework Programmes (1991-1998). In the Fifth Framework Programme (1999-2002), major support for international collaborative studies on the development of replacement alternative test methods will be provided as parts of programmes concerned with the Cell Factory (novel in vitro testing as alternatives to animal testing) and Environment and Health (improvement of predictive toxicity testing, with emphasis on in vitro test systems and alternative screening and testing protocols). The second kind of funding is by competitive contracts for specific studies required by various Services of the Commission, including, for example, pre-validation and validation studies conducted for ECVAM.