Continuing Professional Development

Staff involved in animal experiments are required to be highly competent. To ensure this, a new concept has been introduced: ‘Culture of Care’. In a Culture of Care, laboratory animals are provided with the best possible care and treatment, and this is safeguarded within the organisation. To guarantee the quality of research and the responsible use of laboratory animals, it is important that staff involved in every aspect of animal experiments are able to deepen, expand and maintain their knowledge and skills It is also important to cultivate a critical mindset and hold one another to high standards– in a positive atmosphere. The Culture of Care provides the ideal workplace climate to achieve this, and has resulted in 'Continuing Professional Development' becoming the norm in animal experiment research, just as it is in many professions in the healthcare sector. 

In collaboration with the 3Rs-Centre ULS (Utrecht Life Sciences) and the IvD Platform, we published A Guide to Continuing Professional Development in Animal Experimentation. It contains specific guidelines that need to be considered and developed further by the involved research institutions. One example is the centralised recording of competences in individual competence files. Additionally, a key focus lies on the role of senior management and institutional license holders in larger organisations, ensuring they create the necessary conditions to sustain a Culture of Care.