You are getting a new name. Why did you choose that?
"The name change is an idea we had been toying with for a long time. The UPC has a long history where it has had many names. With the upcoming transition to a new location, we thought it was a good time to at least make the choice of a new name instead of all the names from the past being used interchangeably. We would also like to convey something different in the new facility."
What do you mean by 'conveying something different'?
"The new location is also a new start for us. Animal testing law and health and safety and environmental legislation are becoming increasingly complicated, so there is a growing decision to cluster work with animals in one location. That more easily complies with all laws and regulations. This has been the case for a while, but we used to work a lot with satellite locations. Something new was added each time. As a result, our facility was like a house within a house. At the new location, none of that is an issue. We have one facility including policies, and researchers can use that. Facilitating in a way that works for everyone."
Social sensitivity
Animal testing raises many questions about animal welfare. How do you view this?
"There is a social sensitivity about doing experiments on animals. But not everyone knows that there are strict regulations on working with laboratory animals, and in the Netherlands this is very well supervised. I am enormously pleased with that. There is a lot of attention for licensing, ethics and weighing up whether an experiment outweighs the answer to the question to be obtained. There are also strict rules for working with animals. Spaces must meet strict regulation of, for example, temperature and humidity, and you have to be specifically trained before you are allowed to work with laboratory animals at all. The Animal Experiments Act very clearly states a 'no, unless principle'. If there is an alternative, you are obliged to use it. But there are also things that the law does require to be tested on animals, such as medicines. Among other things, for effectiveness and also whether they are at least non-toxic. And if you have to test them, it's better to do it in a way where animal welfare is paramount. That is highly valued in all facilities in the Netherlands - we all have to adhere to the three Rs: refine, replace, reduce."
"When people come to us to carry out an animal test, an ethics committee and the Central Animal Experiments Committee assess whether it is necessary to do so on animals. There is a whole licensing process attached to that, with the internal supervisor (the animal welfare authority) also thinking about the possibilities. So when researchers come to us, they have already considered whether it is ethically justified to use this number of animals with this degree of distress, for this social and scientific interest. We then ensure that during their lifetime these animals have the best possible time within the framework of the law."New facility
What does your move mean for animal welfare and your work?
"In our new facility we have state-of-the-art equipment where we can monitor the animals even better, where we can perform experiments even better, because the building is also equipped with all the latest technology and provides a stable base."
"The law tells us how big a cage can be, how warm it should be in the room, how many animals can be together, how much food and how much water they should have, that they are all checked daily, including weekends. Now we get the latest technology available on the market, including a monitoring system that measures activity in the cages 24/7 and temperature and humidity systems that are accurate to the decimal point."
"We have also invested heavily in a safe and pleasant workplace for our employees. Within our field, there is a high risk of developing an animal allergy due to years of exposure to rodent hair and faeces. Therefore, our new facility features optimised air treatment, air showers and a lot of working under laminar flow."
"As a facility, we are really very proud of that. When it is decided that animal testing can take place, it can take place at our facility in a very good place."