Innovative communications initiatives by researchers, as well as projects to replace and reduce the use of animals, have been recognised in the 2024 ART Awards.
The awards, from Swiss-based Animal Research Tomorrow (ART) – the international grassroots NGO of biomedical and animal welfare researchers – will fund proposals for communication projects in Portugal and Spain, and also 3Rs (replace, reduce, refine) projects in Germany and Canada.
Benjamin Zarov (see video), at EARA member the Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal, received a Science Communication Award for his upcoming The Sound of (Neuro)Science outreach project, that will introduce neuroscience to young people from local communities in Lisbon through a series of workshops.
Another communication award went to Christelle de Brito and Mireia Garcia Rosello (see video) at the CEU Cardinal Herrera University, Valencia, Spain, for the TranspaVET initiative which aims to improve public awareness and transparency about the institution’s veterinary animal research, in partnership with its students.
Niklas Hegemann (see video), at EARA member Charité, in Berlin, Germany, won the 3Rs Award for his project that will use incubated chicken eggs as a model for cardiovascular research, to reduce the number of animals (such as mice and rats) used in this field.
Also receiving the 3Rs Award was Benjamin Tsang (see video), from the University of Toronto, Canada, who is looking to develop computer-generated software to replace live zebrafish with images instead, for studies into behavioural neuroscience.
The official ceremony for the awards will take place on 8 July, during a virtual ART conference, and the call for the 2025 ART Awards will be announced later in the summer.