In March, I completed my fourth year at Replacing Animal Research – one year in a policy and projects internship, and three years in the Policy Officer role.

Recently, Celean wrote a blog on what has happened during her time as CEO of the charity, and it inspired me to take a look back at my last three years in my current role, from both a policy, and personal, perspective (spoiler alert: a LOT has happened, so I’ll try and keep this as a snapshot!).

Where to start?

If we cast our minds back to 2022, FRAME, as we were called back then, didn’t have a policy department or anyone working specifically in policy. In March, I started as Policy Officer after completing a year’s policy and projects internship, and was tasked with restarting the charity’s policy work. This was the definition of being thrown in at the deep end, especially as it was my first career-related job out of uni, however, I was ready and raring to go.

The first major task I undertook was drawing up our policy approach. This is a document that outlines the areas of policy that we focus our resources on, and the changes we’d like to see, paving the way for the projects that we’ve worked on since 2022. I’m currently working on updating our policy approach, so make sure to keep an eye out!

What have been our main focuses?

I could sit here for hours listing all the policy work we’ve done over the last three years, but a lot of it can be narrowed down to three main projects:

• Strengthening project licences and non-technical summaries

• Improving the annual statistics

• Transparency

Strengthening project licences

This work has focused on improving the questions within the project licence application, specifically the replacement section of the non-technical summary. Our main output here was producing new suggested questions that could be added to the application form that would allow applicants to really break down their answers around the use of replacements, as well as making it easier for reviewers to see what, and how, the applicants searched for.

We’ve raised these suggestions several times with the Home Office, who are taking them into consideration with the regulatory reform programme they are currently undertaking.

Improving the annual statistics

Similarly to our project licence work, our statistics project has focused mainly on suggestions that would improve the collection and publication of annual statistics on the use of animals in science. Improving the annual statistics is important to ensure that we know exactly where, how, and why animals are still being used in science and to help inform the development of non-animal methods in areas that are heavily reliant on animals.

We’ve come up with four main suggestions that we have been pushing forward with the Home Office to improve transparency, scope and usability of the statistics, focusing on data collection processes and the inclusion of more areas, such as animals who are bred but killed before use in a procedure, rehoming of animals, and establishment type.

Transparency

The biggest barrier we are trying to cross here is Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, the section of the legislation which concerns the protection of confidential information. This means information like full licence applications and licence reviews cannot be made public, and detailed information on animal procedures is not available to access.

We want to see this section repealed, and although this is an issue which has been raised in parliament many times across the last decade, still nothing has changed. As well as Section 24, our other projects also fall into the realm of improving transparency in animal research, by improving the quality of information that is already publicly available.

Out and about

When I first started in this role, we were limited with our opportunities to go out and talk about our work, but this is something that has grown tenfold since due to our increase in communication around our work, our reputation building as the charity has grown, and recommendations and referrals from other events we’ve attended.

Just in the last 12 months, I’ve travelled all around the country to share our work. I’ve been to:

• London attending Home Office meetings with the Animals in Science Regulation Policy Unit

• Birmingham to present at the UK Animal Law Conference (and I’ll be back again this year!)

• Plymouth to talk to the current bioscience students about careers

• Edinburgh to take part in a roundtable on the welfare implications of the Precision Breeding Act

We’ve also conducted a lot of virtual lectures and training, like guest lecturing at Hartpury University for the past three years as part of their MSc Animal Welfare and Policy, and this year, guest lecturing at the University of Central Lancashire as part of their MSc One Health, One Welfare. All of these opportunities have been fantastic for getting us in front of new audiences, growing our connections, and making sure our message is getting out there.

Connecting with policymakers

I’ve already mentioned some of the letters we’ve written, but I’ve lost count of the number of briefings, emails and letters we’ve sent to policymakers since I started.

We’ve sent briefings focused on parliamentary debates and focusing on specific areas like the statistics or the 2024 General Election, and letters focused on work from our projects, and what we’d like to see from the government’s manifesto commitments and in phase-out plans, among many other topics.

We’ve also submitted to countless calls for evidence and inquiry submissions, from the Animals in Science Committees call for what leading practice in the 3Rs looks like, to feedback on the UK Committee on Research Integrity’s draft strategic plan, to the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee’s open call for what areas of science they should be focusing on.

What’s next?

The last four years have been jam-packed, but I think it’s safe to say that the charity is in a totally different space policy-wise than we were in 2021, and, if I do say so myself, completely for the better!

From a personal perspective, it’s been incredible to grow the policy role within the charity, but it’s also allowed me to grow and develop within my career. I’ve always felt incredibly lucky that I was given the opportunity to jump in feet first as someone who was right at the start of my journey, and that I’ve been given the support and the freedom to get to where we are now!

There is still so much more to do, but we have some things to look forward to in the near future. We have a government commitment to work towards the phase-out of animal testing, which is definitely something to feel optimistic about. We’ll continue to work with policymakers to ensure that our voice is heard and our suggestions are put forward, as well as continuing to push our other areas of work to ensure that replacement is fulfilled robustly.

Here’s to the next however many years!