Resources

This report, the outcome of a workshop convened by leading scientific organizations including FASEB, AAMC, and COGR, with support from NABR, examines the regulatory landscape governing federally funded animal research in the United States. It highlights the significant administrative burdens researchers confront due to overlapping, inconsistent, or outdated rules from multiple federal agencies, notably the NIH and USDA. Despite the critical importance of both animal welfare and sound science, the report argues that many existing regulations do not meaningfully enhance animal care but instead divert resources and slow scientific progress. Drawing on survey data and prior national reports, workshop participants provide a suite of actionable recommendations focused on harmonizing and streamlining oversight requirements, consolidating regulatory authority, and instituting processes that better reflect contemporary scientific knowledge and risk-based oversight models.

Key recommendations include establishing a single federal entity for animal research oversight, instituting risk-based and less frequent inspections, clarifying the non-regulatory status of guidance documents such as the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and reducing or eliminating reporting requirements and practices that do not improve animal welfare. The report also urges the use of external advisory panels composed of research practitioners to review and guide policy changes, and to ensure that revisions to regulation and guidance documents are evidence-based, minimize unnecessary administrative tasks, and actively involve the regulated community. Citing the legislative mandate from the 21st Century Cures Act and longstanding calls for reform, the report calls for immediate action from federal agencies and Congress to implement these changes, emphasizing that doing so will promote both animal welfare and scientific productivity by better allocating institutional resources and investigator time.