Colipa and EU Kick-off Animal Alternative Initiative

Posted: March 4, 2011

Safety Evaluation Ultimately Replacing Animal Testing (SEURAT), a research initiative funded by the European Union's Health Programme and Colipa, has gotten underway with a kick-off meeting, held March 1-3, 2011, in Cascais, Portugal.

At the first meeting, nearly 100 scientists from over 70 European organizations will begin SEURAT-1, the first of the program's six research projects*. SEURAT-1 will develop knowledge and technology building blocks required for the development of solutions for the replacement of current repeated dose systemic toxicity testing in vivo used for the assessment of human safety.

This research initiative, launched in July 2009, will take place over five years and is backed by €50 million, funded equally by both programs.

The collaboration between these six research projects, the dissemination of results, the cooperation with other international research teams and the continuous updating on research priorities will be facilitated by the coordination and support action project “COACH.” 

According to Colipa, the development of non-animal alternative methods represents a considerable scientific challenge. The development, validation and acceptance of alternative methods by regulatory bodies can only be considered as a long-term effort. Therefore, in addition to the research and technology development work, SEURAT-1 will also elaborate a longer-term roadmap ensuring that European research efforts can be united and invested efforts optimized in order to achieve deployable solutions as soon as possible.