King's College London

King’s College London has won the Understanding Animal Research (UAR) Award for Media Engagement at the fourth annual UAR Openness Awards.

117 organisations from the bioscience sector have now signed the UAR’s Concordat on Openness on Animal Research in the UK promising to be more open about the research they fund and conduct. The Openness Awards celebrate five winners who have encouraged the widespread sharing of best practice in animal research communications. 

The award was given for King’s involvement in the recent BBC Three documentary, The Monkey Lab, which explored the animal research debate through the stories of major medical breakthroughs, patient journeys and visits to animal research labs in the UK and Europe.

The team, led by researcher Dr Sarah Rose, invited camera crews to the animal research facilities at King’s to witness behavioural studies using marmosets firsthand. Dr Rose’s research aims to improve treatments for patients with Parkinson’s disease for which there is currently no cure.

Dr Rose was interviewed for the documentary, providing a context for viewers to understand how animal research can ultimately lead to improved outcomes for patients and why it is necessary. The documentary also showed the consistently high standards of care for the marmosets housed at King’s facilities.

To coincide with the Openness Awards, UAR has published the third annual report on the Concordat on Openness on Animal Research in the UK. The report details how signatories to the Concordat are fulfilling their commitments to improve openness and transparency, as well as discussing the impacts of the Concordat since it was launched. 

UAR is a not-for-profit organisation that explains why animals are used in medical and scientific research. They aim to achieve a broad understanding of the humane use of animals in medical, veterinary, scientific and environmental research in the UK.

 

For further information about King's please visit the King's in Brief web pages

To find out more about the winners, please visit the UAR website.

For more information about the Concordat, please visit the web pages.

World-changing ideas. Life-changing impact:  https://spotlight.kcl.ac.uk/