The task of finding the right resources to work towards replacing animal use in your research or how to go about developing animal-free methods can be daunting and overwhelming. We collected links to databases, training options and other information we hope you find helpful.

Specific methods: Databases

Around the world, several institutions have collated databases for all aspects of the New Approach Methodologies (NAMs). Here are a few to get you started:

• NAT
  The Non-Animal Technologies (NAT) database held by Doctors Against Animal Experiments, Germany, is a database with a highly definable search function. You can limit the field of research, methods/models used, the year of publication, country of origin, keywords and whether or not the method needs to be validated.¹
• DB-ALM
  The European Union Reference Laboratory for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EURL ECVAM) runs the DataBase service on Alternative Methods (DB-ALM). The database is sortable by document type, title, number (if you know what you’re looking for), topic, model/strategy, endpoints, experimental system, and EU Project (basically funding source).²
• Additionally, EURL ECVAM have been publishing reviews on non-animal methods focusing on different research areas. These are spreadsheets listing available methods, accompanying papers and resources. Reviews have so far been published on:³
  • Neurodegenerative diseases
  • Immuno-oncology
  • Respiratory tract diseases
  • Breast Cancer
  • Immunogenicity testing
  • Cardiovascular diseases
  • Autoimmune diseases ‍
• NICEATM
  The U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) lists accepted alternative methods on their webpage for the NTP Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM) with links to the methods as stored by several governing bodies.⁴
• TSAR
  The EU Commission runs a Tracking System for Alternative methods towards Regulatory acceptance (TSAR), searchable through filters for test method, topic, submission dates, current validation status and responsible organisation.⁵
• NC3Rs Resource Library
  The UK National Centre for the Replacement Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) runs a resource library that includes webinar videos, tools, overview and guidance on different 3R topics. It can be searched by audience, resource type, topic and model. Guidance on animal-free lab material includes lists of suppliers (likely focusing on the UK-market, but many are international companies).⁶
• PCRM
  The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has collected methods without the use of animals available for regulatory use (in the USA) on their website with convenient links on their OECD entries.⁷
• NA3RsC
  The North American 3Rs Collaborative (NA3RsC) have a Technology Hub on their website where you can explore Microphysiological System Companies offering commercially available advanced in vitro models across a variety of organs as well as enabling technologies.⁸
• ICAPO
  The International Council on Animal Protection in OECD Programmes (ICAPO) seeks to ensure the widest possible integration of alternative methods in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). They provide information around Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOP) as well as convenient info and a free download for the QSAR Toolbox (a tool to fill information gaps without new testing).⁹
• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also keeps a current list of Alternatives-papers where FDA scientists have contributed in.¹⁰
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has created an Alternatives Literature Searching Worksheet for researchers to get started on finding a replacement for a specific animal experiment (pdf-file).¹¹

Training and learning options

Webinars and newsletters are likely the most convenient ways to acquire knowledge.

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a webpage dedicated to NAMs training materials and resources,¹² including videos, slide decks and FAQs. They also have a mailing list to get training updates (EPA mailing list).
• The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) provide a free training series called NURA - NAM Use for Regulatory Application. It contains several courses exploring different medical fields and different animal-free methodologies.¹³ They also have an option to fill out a short form to be sent information they have on alternative methods as well as upcoming trainings (PCRM training sign-up).
• The NICEATM¹⁴ newsletter regularly features upcoming trainings, talks and webinars around NAMs. Subscribing will keep you up-to-date with the latest options (NICEATM newsletter).
• Norway's National Consensus Platform for the advancement of the 3Rs (Norecopa) is a wide-range search engine covering links to other databases,books, webinars and other media, guidelines, journals and discussion forums around the 3Rs. While it the search can be refined through several filters, we found it not as intuitive as other databases and the vast amount of resources makes it harder to find something specific.¹⁵ Norecopa has a dedicated page for international webinars and meetings, including access to past ones.¹⁶ They also have a newsletter to keep up with information (Norecopa newsletter).
• While EU member states are responsible for education around 3Rs, the EU is providing some e-learning courses. EU-52 focuses on reaching for already existing non-animal alternatives.¹⁷ EU-60 aims to guide in-vitro test method developers and others interested in ensuring the quality of new methods or approaches.¹⁸ EURL ECVAM also has a newsletter for up-to-date information (EURLECVAM newsletter; note: the redirect on this link seems buggy).
• The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) at John Hopkins University (USA) offers several courses both in person and online.¹⁹ 
• The American Society for Cellular and Computational Toxicology (ASCCT) has a large webinar archive on many specific NAMs²⁰ as well as a current webinar calendar.²¹
• Courses at the 3Rs Info Hub hosted by the Free University of Berlin aim to teach students and scientists how to integrate the 3Rs into their research.²²
• The NA3RsC have a series of presentations on microphysiological systems, separated by target organ.²³ They have a newsletter you can subscribe to (NA3RsCnewsletter).
• The Virtual Physiological Human Institute for Integrative Biomedical Research (VPH) is an international non-profit organisation incorporated in Belgium around in silico medicine models.²⁴ They offer workshops and webinars, and also have a newsletter to keep up-to-date on their offers (in the website sidebar).

Congresses and conferences are a great way to connect to other researchers, to network and learn. Relevant events we found are:

• World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences:
  The 12^th Congress (2023) was held at Niagara Falls in Canada.²⁵ The 13^th Congress will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 31^stAugust to 4^thSeptember 2025.²⁶
• Microphysiological Systems World Summit:
  The 4^th annual summit will be held in Brussels, Belgium, on 9-13^thJune 2025.²⁷
• 3D Tissue Models Summit:
  The 10^th annual summit will be held on 6-8^thMay 2025 in Boston, USA.²⁸
• ASCCT Annual Meeting:
  The 13^thAnnual Meeting (2024) of the American Society for Cellular and Computational Toxicology (ASCCT) was held at North Carolina's Research Triangle Park in Durham, USA.²⁹
• EPA NAMs Conference:
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hosted the 4^thannual NAMs Conference on the State of Science on Development and Use of NAMs for Chemical Safety Testing in November 2024 at North Carolina's Research Triangle Park in Durham, USA.³⁰
• 3Rs Sharing Conference:
  The next 3Rs Sharing Conference will be held at University of Washington, Seattle, USA, on 23^rdApril 2025.³¹
• The Animal Law Conference:
  The 33^rdannual Animal Law Conference will be held in Chicago, USA, on 17-19^thOctober 2025.³²

Journals to follow

In general, it is advisable to keep an eye on several journals that are relevant to replacement research. These include (let us know if we missed one):

• Alternatives to Animal Testing and Experimentation (AATEX): 2 issues per year, open access³³
• Alternatives to Animal Experimentation (ALTEX): 4 issues per year, open access³⁴
• Alternatives to Laboratory Animals (ATLA): 6 issues per year, open access³⁵
• More and more other journals pick up on the importance of NAMs. While not exclusively, these journals also feature NAM research:
  • Science Translational Medicine (SciTransl Med): 50 issues per year³⁶
  • Trends in Biotechnology (Trends BioTechnol.): 12 issues per year³⁷
  • Microsystems & Nanoengineering (Microsyst Nanoeng): new online content weekly, open access³⁸
  • nature biomedical engineering (Nat.Biomed. Eng): 12 issues per year³⁹
  • Cell Systems (Cell Syst.): 12 issues per year⁴⁰
  • Computational molecular science (Wiley Interdiscip Rev Comput Mol Sci): 6 issues per year⁴¹

Funding

Upon request, MPI directed us to the SFF Futures Fund for animal-free methods. While we could not find any past examples, this can be a possibility for your future research.⁴² Apart from that, we uncovered a striking lack of funding for anyanimal-free research in Aotearoa. We pushed to change this in our Striking at the Source Campaign.

Horizon Europe opened its funding opportunities in Pillar 2 for New Zealand scientists in 2024.⁴³

The U.S. National Agricultural Library has a list of (U.S. centred, but also international) funding opportunities, including deadlines for application.⁴⁴ They also have links to other useful resources, which we covered above.

NZAVS collected all funding we found available to NZ researchers here.

Teaching

Animal-free teaching gains momentum worldwide. It is, therefore, relatively easy to find examples to model classes and courses after.

• Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine (RUSVM, USA) built their ethical Clinical Skills Lab in 2010, set up to train future vets without using invasive procedures involving live animals. Professor Andrew Knight published a paper on the lab’s development, running it and growing its teaching scope to include a wider range of surgical, medical and other clinical skills.⁴⁵
• International Veterinary Simulation in Teaching (InVeST) is an informal group of veterinary doctors formed to share and enhance knowledge around teaching through models and simulations in annual conferences (next in Texas, 17-19th October 2025).⁴⁶
• Utrecht University, Netherlands, has created a position dedicated to NAMs at the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences Toxicology: the professor for Evidence-Based Transition to Animal-Free Innovations.⁴⁷ The university also has an event calendar with upcoming animal-free congresses, trainings and courses.⁴⁸
• NORINA (A Norwegian Inventory of Alternatives) is an English-language database implemented into the Norecopa website. It contains information on many alternatives to the use of animals in education and training, including dissection alternatives, at all levels from Junior School to University.⁴⁹
• The Australian National University has a dedicated adviser for alternative methods for their Animal Ethics committee: Associate Professor Brett Lidbury, who also oversees student projects around alternative research.⁵⁰

NZAVS also collected a lot of useful information regarding animal-free teaching methods for all educational levels on our pages around Kind Education.

International Collaboration

One of the main points of contact regarding international cooperation was established in the USA in 2009, called the International Cooperation on Alternative Test Methods (ICATM).⁵¹

Their goal is to establish international cooperation to ultimately ensure worldwide acceptance of alternative methods and strategies. ICATM is run by the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), a permanent committee of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).⁵²

ICAPO runs working groups on a wide number of replacement topics. They welcome inquiries from outside experts interested in working on ICAPO's behalf on OECD-related activities.⁵³

Further reading

• Return to the main For Researchers page.
• Learn about the benefits of ending animal experimentation for animals, people and science.
• Read about why animal testing is both ethically and scientifically flawed.