“We want to find out how experiments in animal research are ethically evaluated”

© Marco Finsterwald

The project “THINK-3R” aims to understand the ethical perspectives of diverse stakeholders involved in animal research. By simulating decision-making scenarios, it seeks to balance scientific benefits with animal welfare considerations.

David Azilagbetor is a member of the “THINK-3R” project, led by Professors Jens Gaab and Bernice Elger at the University of Basel. “THINK-3R” stands for “3R-sTrategies and Harm-benefIt analysis: uNderstanding decision-maKing and improving consistency and accountability in animal experiment evaluations in Switzerland.” It aims to investigate and enhance the consistency of ethical decisions concerning proposed animal experiments in Switzerland. David Azilagbetor provides insights into the project's goals and methodologies.

David, what are the core elements of the project?

Our principal objective is to understand how various stakeholders in Swiss society want animal research to be evaluated. In Switzerland, all proposed animal experiments must undergo ethical evaluation and approval before researchers receive licenses to proceed with their experiments.

Our main focus is to determine how different stakeholders in animal research – scientists, patients, members of the general public, ethics commission members, and Swiss society more broadly – would conduct ethical evaluations.

How do you determine the ethical evaluations of the stakeholders?

We put these stakeholders in the hypothetical position of decision-makers and ask them to make ethical evaluations of actual animal experiments conducted in Switzerland. We are particularly interested in finding out what matters most to these stakeholders when trying to strike a balance between the potential benefits to be gained from these experiments and the harm inflicted on animals. We aim to collect their ethical outlooks and expectations to inform ethical decision-making for the projects submitted to cantonal ethics commissions.

A crucial aspect of this research is acknowledging the diverse array of stakeholders involved in animal research in Switzerland and the importance of considering their ethical positions in animal research authorisations.

Can you tell us more about the different stakeholders?

Scientists are a major stakeholder since they conduct the experiments and play a significant role in ensuring the required ethical standards of animal research. Consequently, understanding their perspectives on the ethics surrounding animal research is essential. The Swiss public is also a key stakeholder since they have a say and can influence animal research policies through various means, for example, by voting on popular initiatives. In addition, we consider patients, who are generally the beneficiaries of findings from animal experiments, as one of the major stakeholder groups. Their ethical perspectives are also important to consider in decision-making processes.

Another core aspect of our project that is worth mentioning concerns testing the influence of ethics teaching interventions. We incorporate short teaching interventions in our case studies with stakeholders to see if they have any influence on their ethical perspectives on animal research. Since teaching interventions are a focus area in our project, we also include students who are taking ethics courses in various universities in Switzerland in order to evaluate the impact of ethics teaching on students' abilities to assess animal experiments. By understanding how ethics education influences their decision-making, we aim to develop better educational interventions.

Overall, the core focus of our project is to approach decision-making from the perspectives of the various stakeholders and to incorporate all involved parties in the discussions surrounding animal research in Switzerland. A particularly innovative element of our approach is to put these stakeholders in the position of decision-makers to evaluate real, ongoing and past experiments.

You created a survey and sent it to 1367 study directors with the support of the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO). What do you hope to gain from this survey?

We are using survey methodology with qualitative aspects to assess the ethical perceptions of the various stakeholders. The survey presents summaries of animal experiments, detailing the harm inflicted on animals and the anticipated benefits, and asks participants to decide whether they would approve these experiments. The survey sent to the study directors through the FSVO was aimed at scientists in Switzerland. In this survey, participants complete the ethical evaluation of the cases, watch a brief video and continue with the ethical evaluation. This process allows us to assess whether the provided information influences their opinions. We also assess their personal moral philosophies and their positions on animal research in general.

We collaborated with the FSVO and Otto Maissen to distribute the survey to over 1,300 study directors via the federal platform Animex. This collaboration enabled us to ensure that we reach all animal researchers in Switzerland. Without the FSVO's support, reaching this extensive audience would have been challenging. We also appreciate the assistance of project leaders from NRP 79, who helped disseminate the survey among other scientists.

What comes next?

Currently, we are in the data collection phase and hope to gather more responses. We have obtained about a quarter of our target data. As we continue to collect more data, we will start looking into the analysis of what we have collected so far. We will also continue with our teaching interventions with students from various Swiss universities.

In addition to the survey, we have organised panel discussions involving various experts in (animal) research matters to enrich our project and establish criteria for various aspects of ethical evaluations. We extended invitations to all project leaders from NRP 79, whose support within the research programme has been invaluable. We will explore the outcomes of these discussions to advance the objectives of our project.

New infographic with an overview of the project elements

A new infographic provides an overview of the NRP 79 research programme: its projects, modules, and key stakeholders.