News

The 13th FELASA congress entitled: ‘Brussels Revisited’ to be held on 13-16 June 2016 in Brussels, is jointly organized with BCLAS (the Belgian Council for Laboratory Animal Science), NVP (the Dutch Society for Laboratory Animal Science) and BV (the Dutch Society for Animal Technology).

The venue of the Congress is The Square, at the heart of the cultural centre of the city. Of course, Brussels is also the political centre of the European Union who have decided to innovate the Directive for the protection of animals used for research (2010/63 replacing 86/609). This new Directive aims to create a level playing field in Europe regarding the use of animals. The scale of the new Directive’s innovations reflects high ambitions to further develop and implement 3Rs alternatives (Reduction, Refinement and Replacement) and governance (by greater transparency). As a result, the Congress will also be of great interest to politicians and public bodies across Europe.

The FELASA Congress will attract over a thousand scientists and other professionals from all over the world, if only out of curiosity to see how things will develop in Europe, where animal protection is at an unprecedented high level. The programme will cover scientific, societal and practical aspects of a range of topics of interest for those working in this field.

The main themes will address

• the quality and validity of animal research,
• how animals and humans are at risk from the same health issues,
• technological advances,
• animal welfare,
• harmonization and exchange of best practices i.e. through education and training and ethical evaluation,
• and how all this is related to public interests.

There will be state-of-the-art plenary presentations and your abstracts for oral presentations and posters are warmly welcomed. Also, suggestions for sessions can be brought to the attention of the Scientific Committee.
The FELASA Congress is an excellent forum for the discussion of research and research policies and strategies. Interactive sessions will be included in the program as well as advanced tools for further communications.

PHENOMIN-ICS will attend the meeting and present some data with respect to wellfare assessement.