Award details

Animal Welfare Research Network

Reference	BB/S012974/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Michael Mendl
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	University of Bristol
Department	Clinical Veterinary Science
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	101,998
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/01/2019
End date	31/03/2022
Duration	39 months

Abstract

Animal welfare remains an important area of public concern and source of potentially emotive argument. However, decisions by government and other stakeholders for future directions need to be based on information that is as unbiased and objective as possible. This requires a strong and sustained animal welfare research community to provide scientific information that can underpin informed decision-making. The Animal Welfare Research Network (AWRN) has been developed to support the UK animal welfare research community and its membership now numbers nearly 500. Surveys indicate that members perceive a range of benefits from the AWRN including increased collaboration, skills development, awareness of developments in the field and a deeper understanding of animal welfare research, awareness of funding opportunities, and grant success. In the next phase of the AWRN, we will further develop our activities including: (i) running 2-day annual meetings incorporating networking activities, workshops, and research spotlight sessions; (ii) developing early career researcher (ECR) activities to stimulate, encourage and mentor ECRs to become the next generation of PIs and research group leaders; (iii) funding 3 member-led workshops per year to bring together animal welfare researchers and stakeholders / researchers in other relevant areas to discuss emerging topics of interest and run training sessions (ring-fencing at least 1 workshop per year for ECRs); (iv) developing our website (awrn.co.uk) with a particular focus on encouraging use of the internal-facing members area for discussion, and sharing of information on skills, new technologies etc.; (v) further increasing membership, including exploring the potential for internationalisation with the support of a potential AWRN co-funder (UFAW); (vi) exploring future funding opportunities, including with UFAW and also bodies such as OpenPhilanthropy, and considering the use of joining or subscription fees.

Summary

Animal welfare continues to be an important issue for many members of the public. In a 2016 Eurobarometer survey of nearly 28,000 EU citizens, 94% believed that it was important to protect the welfare of farmed animals, and 57% said that it was very important to do so (Special Eurobarometer 442, 2016). A consequence is that debates on animal usage and animal welfare can be highly charged and emotive affairs, open to the influence of vested interests and biased argument. However, decisions by government and other stakeholders for future directions need to be based on information that is as unbiased and objective as possible. This information comes from systematic and scientific animal welfare research. A strong and sustained animal welfare research community is thus essential to underpin well-informed decisions that maintain and improve welfare. To achieve greater interaction and cohesion within the UK animal welfare research community (probably the largest of its kind in the world), the Animal Welfare Research Network (AWRN) was set up in 2016. Since that time, its membership has grown to nearly 500, including animal welfare researchers but also neuroscientists, immunologists, social and political scientists and other academics, alongside representatives from charities, industry, research funding organisastions, policy-makers and government. Surveys indicate that members have benefitted by forming new collaborations, improving their skills as a researcher, improving their understanding of animal welfare research, becoming more aware of opportunities in the area, and achieving grant success. In the next phase of the AWRN, we aim to continue and develop our activities including: (i) running 2-day annual meetings which incorporate networking activities, workshops (e.g. grant-writing), and research spotlight sessions with invited speakers; (ii) developing our early career researcher (ECR) activities to stimulate, encourage and mentor ECRs to develop into the next generation of PIs leading research grants applications and establishing animal welfare research groups (e.g. via researcher-exchange and cross-institute PhD training and mentoring); (iii) funding 3 member-led workshops per year to bring together animal welfare researchers and stakeholders / researchers in other relevant areas to discuss emerging topics of interest, run training sessions, and develop new contacts (at least one of these will be ring-fenced for ECRs each year); (iv) maintaining and developing our website (awrn.co.uk) with a particular focus on encouraging use of the internal-facing members area for discussion, sharing of information on methods, skills, new technologies, and findings; (v) further increasing membership, including exploring the potential for internationalisation with the support of a potential Network co-funder (UFAW); (vi) exploring future funding opportunities, including with UFAW and also bodies such as OpenPhilanthropy which has started to fund animal welfare-related projects, and considering the imposition of joining or subscription fees.

Impact Summary

Successful researcher networks such as the Animal Welfare Research Network (AWRN) strengthen research leading to welfare improvements and hence can underpin the impact of this research. For example, the generation of new welfare assessment tools, the potential for method standardisation in certain areas, and the increased communication between researchers working on different species and on different types of question (fundamental, applied, implementation), should all contribute to a stronger science and associated welfare improvements with a broader societal impact. Whilst this type of impact may take some time to be realised as clear-cut and implementable research findings, it can be promoted through a number of different routes involving communication and engagement. First, increasing communication within the academic community should generate new collaborations and hence increase chances of impactful developments. We will continue to raise awareness about AWRN at meetings of other relevant academic societies (e.g. BSAS, AVTRW, ASAB, ISAE, BVA, WAFL). Further promotion via articles in subject-specific journals and more general science journals will also be carried out where relevant and when opportunities arise, and we will continue to forge connections with other network organisations outside the UK (e.g. USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture, French 'AbriBEA' welfare researchers network). Second, enhanced communication with government, charities and other NGOs can allow science to be inserted more effectively into decision-making processes concerning animal welfare. AWRN will continue to act as a pool of expertise in animal welfare through the activities of its members and Coordinating Group on committees and panels, and by marshalling the membership to respond to governmental consultations or specific calls for information as we have done in the recent past on a number of welfare issues. We will also encourage government, charity and NGO representatives to join AWRN. Communication with industry is an extremely important way of identifying pressing animal welfare issues and delivering solutions and implementing findings collaboratively. AWRN will run annual meetings and workshops that target specific industry areas or issues and encourage industry representatives to attend and to join the network. An industry-focused meeting on automation of welfare assessment is currently being organised. Public engagement will be achieved through the website which provides up-to-date information on recent animal welfare research findings, and also through the activities of members communicating their work in schools, at festivals and through other routes. Promotion of AWRN through platforms such as Speakezee will advertise the range of expertise available in the network as a resource for media and those seeking to learn about animal welfare or tackle specific problems. We will also promote training in science communication, especially to early career researchers, and aim to run media training workshops that we have hosted previously. Finally, communication with funders will remain an important part of AWRN's activities, seeking new funding sources and potential joint-funding opportunities. We will encourage funder representatives to join AWRN so that they can be kept up to date on developments in the field, and can alert AWRN members and Coordinating Group of upcoming funding initiatives.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Animal Welfare
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Community Research Networks (CRN) [2014-2015]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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