Details have been released on the session on animal research communications that will take place at this year’s FENS Forum of Neuroscience, in Berlin, 7-11 July.
Featuring EARA Executive Director, Kirk Leech, the special interest event entitled Communicating Animal Research: Challenges and Opportunities, looks at how neuroscientists can counter opposition to their research work using animals from activist groups.
The biomedical research sector has often been hesitant and defensive in its response and the event will explain how proactive communications, and openness on animal research can encourage public trust.
Also on the programme of speakers at the event, will be Wolf Singer of the Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience (an EARA member) and Cristina Marquez, of the Institute of Neuroscience, Alicante, Spain. FENS, is the voice of European neuroscience and represents close to 23,000 European neuroscientists and the Forum will be its major event this year.
Kirk Leech (right) said: “There is a growing understanding in the biomedical research sector that being more open and transparent about the use of animals in research can improve public understanding and acceptance, however the need for a collective commitment, including better information to the media and the general public is also important.
Wolf Singer (right) will talk on the Ethical Implications of Animal Experimentation in Basic Research. He looks at how the acquisition of knowledge has an ethical value in itself despite the difficulty of proving that the expected gain of knowledge will contribute directly to the alleviation of conditions that cause suffering.
In Cristina Marquez’s talk, Neuroscience Outreach for +3 to 99 year-old, she shares her personal experiences of organising outreach activities for all ages, communicating her research in social decision-making in rodents.