The UAR Openness Conference returns in June 2026

Due to the success of the 2024 Openness Conference and the overwhelming demand from conference attendees to do it again, we are delighted to announce that our second Openness Conference will be held in the West Midlands from 9-10 June 2026. More information regarding registration, abstract submission and sponsorship opportunities will follow soon.

 

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Openness in Animal Research Conference, May 2024

The Openness in Animal Research Conference, organised by UAR to mark the tenth anniversary of the Concordat on Openness on Animal Research, took place over two days at the start of May. This was a double first: the first conference of its kind entirely dedicated to openness in animal research; and the first event of this scale that has been organised by UAR.

Events were opened by Professor Clive Page of KCL, the first of our keynote speakers. Clive gave a moving speech about openness, describing some of the hardships and dangers that he and others had overcome in the course of his long commitment to promoting public understanding of the importance of animals to medical research. Our second keynote speaker, Dr Cindy Buckmaster, Scientific Advisor to Transnetyx, delivered an equally inspiring message about the importance of passion in communications, reminding us of the power of real-life human stories and the need to tell them.

The two days of the conference were filled with a fascinating and wide-ranging series of talks, panels, workshops and posters revealing the extraordinary depth and breadth of work taking place in the interests of furthering openness. The international character of the conference was striking, with speakers from Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States, making it clear that laboratory animal welfare is a global concern and the movement towards openness is gathering strength across the world. The response from attendees was overwhelmingly positive with the question “when will you do it again?” being one of the most frequent responses in feedback.

Thank you to all who contributed to the conference’s success.