AWI has joined the Validation & Qualification Network (VQN), a public-private partnership to foster the development and use of new approach methodologies (NAMs)—innovative techniques that can help reduce and replace animals in research and testing. The partnership—launched by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health in collaboration with the NIH—is an element of the Complement Animal Research in Experimentation (Complement-ARIE) program, an NIH Common Fund initiative working to catalyze the development, standardization, validation, and use of NAMs based on human biological processes.
The VQN is in the midst of a one-year design phase; as a partner, AWI will have the opportunity to weigh in on the partnership’s scope and goals and help establish selection criteria for project funding. Following this design phase, the VQN will undergo two implementation phases over the next 10 years, during which it will select and fund validation studies, implement validation efforts, and support NAM qualification.
Click here to learn more about NAMs and the outlook for replacing animals in research and testing with nonanimal models.