Fulfilling your obligations as a personal or project licence holder under the Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986

D. I. Lewis. School of Biomedical Sciences University of Leeds, Leeds, UNITED KINGDOM.

Background and aims: Mandatory completion of accredited training courses prior to obtaining a licence under the Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (A(SP)A) were introduced in 2004 and 2005 for personal and project licence holders respectively. These are only introductory courses; significant education and training is required after a licence is granted. Further, following the transposition of EU Directive 201/63/EU into UK law in 2012, there is now a requirement for all those who use laboratory animals in their research or design studies involving laboratory animals to engage in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities throughout their careers. However, few laboratory animal sciences CPD courses exist. The aim, therefore, was to develop CPD activities and share these via ETRIS (Education and Training Resources in In-Vivo Sciences1), an online repository of free, open access laboratory animal sciences e-learning resources.

Summary of work and outcomes: CPD activities for EU Function B (Design experiments, Project licensees) covering roles and responsibilities under A(SP)A, the application of the 3Rs to their research, welfare assessments, experimental design, and publishing studies involving laboratory animals were created and utilised at a half-day workshop at the University of Leeds. Additional resources for both Function B and Function A (Use animals, Personal licensees) are in preparation. All created resources will be uploaded to ETRIS and shared with the community. The intention is that individual activities can be utilised by educators in short sessions, or combined together to form longer workshops. Further, a one-day CPD workshop for Project Licence Holders, jointly funded by the British Pharmacological Society and The Physiological Society, where these resources will be utilised, is planned for early 2017.

Discussion and conclusion: This programme of work begins to address the need for resources and activities that can used for the continuing professional development of those who use laboratory animals in research or are involved in the design of such studies. There is still significant work to be undertaken. If colleagues have CPD resources they are willing to share with the community, know of resources elsewhere, or wish to be involved in the creation of new resources, please could they contact Dave Lewis (d.i.lewis@leeds.ac.uk).

References: 1. ETRIS. www.etris.leeds.ac.uk