About Us
7 Oct 2008
Welcome
The Dr Hadwen Trust today
Vision, Mission, Values
Science Room
Focus on Alternatives
Policy Statements
Our global alliances
The Dr Hadwen Trust is the UK’s leading medical research charity that funds and promotes exclusively non-animal techniques to replace animal experiments. Our vital work benefits humans with the development of more relevant and reliable science whilst also benefiting laboratory animals. We believe that excellence in medical research can and should be pursued without animal experiments. Registered charity number 261096 established 1970.
Our portfolio of high-quality, peer-reviewed and innovative research combines strict ethical principles with scientific excellence, and has involved projects in a range of fields including epilepsy, cancer, meningitis, asthma, Multiple sclerosis, diabetes, drug testing, arthritis, Parkinson’s disease, lung injury, whooping cough, vaccine testing, dentistry, heart disease, tropical illness, fetal development and pregnancy, brain tumours and AIDS.
The Dr Hadwen Trust is internationally recognised as a leading authority on replacing animal experiments and actively promotes the concept and practice of non-animal research through publications, workshops, debates and the media. Our Scientific Director, Dr Gill Langley, served for eight years as a member of the British government’s Animal Procedures Committee which advises the Home Secretary on animal experimentation matters. She has also advised the government on the introduction of the new EU chemicals legislation (REACH), and has been an invited expert on initiatives of the European Commission and of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Dr Langley currently represents the Dr Hadwen Trust as a member of the Replacement Advisory Group of the British National Centre for the Three Rs (Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of animals in research).
Our vision …
is of a world where all animal experiments are either no longer permissible or have been replaced by non-animal testing methods.
Our mission …
is to play a leading role in funding, advancing and developing widespread support for non-animal replacement research and so make a major, practical contribution to the cessation of animal experiments.
Our values …
We believe that excellence in medical research can and should be pursued without animal experiments because they are morally unjustified and scientifically unsatisfactory. We are driven by a respect and compassion for all life, animal and human alike, and strive to always be professional, truthful, effective and innovative.
The Dr Hadwen Trust’s Science Room at www.scienceroom.org is an exciting new source of information which demonstrates how vibrant the world of non-animal research is. The Science Room website aims to highlight the work of the Dr Hadwen Trust for those in the biomedical community keen to know more about this area of advanced science, as well as to stimulate thinking to address biomedical issues from new perspectives.
Focus on Alternatives – working together to replace animal experiments
The Dr Hadwen Trust is the chair of Focus on Alternatives, a coalition of expert non-governmental organisations which fund the development, or promote the acceptance of, methods that replace the use of laboratory animals in research, education and testing. Focus on Alternatives comprises members from the Dr Hadwen Trust, FRAME (Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments), the Humane Research Trust, UK Human Tissue Bank (UKHTB), St Andrew Animal Fund (part of Advocates for Animals), RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and the Lord Dowding Fund. Focus on Alternatives works by lobbying, facilitating access to information, educating animal researchers and by organising workshops and meetings on specific topics of concern. Find out more at www.focusonalternatives.org.uk
Here is a selection of some of the Dr Hadwen Trust’s policy statements.
We are proud to be active members of Eurogroup for Animals and the International Council for Animal Protection in OECD Programmes (ICAPO). Eurogroup is the largest alliance of animal welfare groups across Europe, with groups in virtually every Member State. Eurogroup opposes all experiments that cause animals suffering or distress, including their killing for tissues, and is committed to their replacement. ICAPO is a coalition of animal protection groups in Europe, the United States and Japan working to ensure that animals in laboratories have a powerful advocate within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) which co-ordinates international guidelines for chemicals testing.
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June 2008