UZH 3R Award

The UZH 3R Award is intended to highlight the efforts and successes of UZH staff in the field of 3Rs, both within and outside UZH, and thus promote the 3R principles at UZH.
The award is endowed with 5000 CHF and is presented annually.

The Winners of the UZH 3R Award 2024 are announced:

One prize goes to Petra Seebeck and her ZIRP team for their efforts to optimise surgical procedures on rodents in animal experiments. Surgery is an integral part of many experimental studies. Good surgical practice is a prerequisite for surgical success and optimal animal welfare, which does not only improve the animal’s postoperative recovery, but also outcome and validity of a study. The team aims therefore to gain insight into the application of good surgical practice during laboratory rodent surgery with the help of systematic reviews and surveys. As a consequence of their insights, dedicated training and guidelines are developed and provided to improve the situation. Also their well-attended course “Good Surgical Practice for Rodent Surgery” is a successful step into this direction, which will be complemented with training videos and posters in the future.

The second prize is awarded to Benjamin Ineichen and his team. The aim of the STRIDE-Lab is to make the systematic review a standard tool among animal researchers at the UZH (and beyond) by championing evidence synthesis of animal research and by providing a supporting environment to make the process of systematic review more efficient for animal researchers. The ongoing endeavour has resulted in a variety of outputs: The CAMARADES Zurich was recently launched providing a supportive framework for animal researchers at the UZH to conduct systematic reviews.  Tools to automate the systematic review have been developed and are already openly available to animal researchers, e.g., for automated data extraction from animal studies.  A pilot data warehouse presenting bench-to-bedside translational success rates of animal research in specific fields was established. Additionally the team hosted the first CAMARADES summer school on animal systematic review in August 2023.

• The prize is awarded to a member of the university (individual or team) who makes a significant contribution in the field of the 3Rs.
• Candidates must be employed or enrolled at UZH.
• Candidates can be nominated by any UZH member.

• The contribution may take the form of proposals to modify existing research techniques or innovative approaches that improve ainmal welfare in animal experimentation or reduce or replace the use of animals.
• Published scientific papers or publicly available preprints by UZH researchers as well as education and training projects and initiatives for the implementation of 3R methods by UZH members at UZH can be nominated. The publication, project or initiative should have been published or taken place in the year prior to the year of the award (e.g. for 2025: 01.01.24-15.06.25).

The applications are judged on their 3R relevance (e.g. how many animals can a method save or how much stress on animals is reduced by a method, etc.) and their scope (implementation efforts, establishment, dissemination at the UZH, throughout Switzerland, internationally), scientific projects should also be of good scientific quality (see e.g. also Policy Animal Research).

• Completed application form. (DOCX, 973 KB)
• Copy of the scientific publication or supporting documents describing the project / initiative (images, videos, entries on the website or similar).
• Nominations must be submitted in English.
• All documents are treated confidentially.

Please, send the application to 3r@research.uzh.ch

Deadline 2024: 15.06.24

The selection committee consists of external experts with expertise in alternative methods, animal research and animal husbandry, biostatistics and/or ethics.

Giuseppe Esposito: Replacing animals in microsurgical education and training

By using human placentas, Giuseppe Esposito was able to eliminate the use of experimental rats in his microsurgical courses. Due to their numerous vessels of various sizes, conditions during surgery can be well simulated with this initial model and surgeons can be successfully trained. Here Giuseppe Esposito explains how he achieved full replacement in his courses: video.

Melanie Generali: iPSC Core Facility (iPSCore)

Induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, can in some cases replace laboratory animals in biomedical research. Melanie Generali has founded the iPSC Core Facility (iPSCore) at the Institute of Regenerative Medicine (IREM) of the University of Zurich, which is a unique research facility in Switzerland that supports researchers in producing and working with iPSCs. Learn more about Melanie Generali`s work in this video.

UZH News article on the winning projects.

Questions or feedback to Paulin Jirkof, paulin.jirkof@uzh.ch