EPAA: A joint initiative

The European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA) is an unprecedented voluntary collaboration between the European Commission, European trade associations, and companies from seven industry sectors. The partners are committed to pooling knowledge and resources to accelerate the development, validation and acceptance of alternative approaches to further the replacement, reduction and refinement (3Rs) of animal use in regulatory testing.

Three platforms organise the work on different projects and ensure their consistency.

About some ongoing activities:

1. The Science Platform projects Read more >

•  New perspectives on safety - computational chemistry and systems biology: An expert workshop was organised with the objective of developing a strategic plan to exploit recent advances in computational chemistry in alignment with state-of-the-art expertise in systems and synthetic biology and in biological modelling. The workshop took place on 5-7 July, Brussels. Read more >

2. The 3Rs in Regulation Platform projects Read more >

•  3Rs in acute toxicity testing: A cross-sector review of the drivers for acute systemic toxicity testing and of the alternative approaches was carried out by an EPAA Task Force in collaboration with the HSI and the NC3Rs. The findings will be discussed at a workshop on 16 September 2010, in Brussels. Read more >


•  Consistency approach in vaccines testing: A joint ECVAM/EPAA workshop discussed the applicability of the consistency approach for routine release of human and veterinary vaccines and how this could reduce animal use. The workshop was held on 11-12 January 2010, in Brussels. Read more >


•  Extended one-generation reproductive toxicity study: Exploring the use of an extended one-generation study to replace the two-generation study required by REACH. Four companies are checking the feasibility of this approach, which has a huge reduction potential. Read more >

3. The Communication & Dissemination Platform projects Read more >

•  A market place for 3Rs: The "market place" concept emerged at the EPAA Dissemination Workshop, in November 2009. Read more >


•  Thematic reviews - reproductive toxicity: The EPAA is supporting a review of available 3Rs techniques and their status of development and/or validation on reproductive toxicity. Read more >


•  Science and communication awards: The EPAA is offering a prize for Communication on 3Rs and a Science award. Read more >