The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing is handing out grants to people who are doing non-animal-using toxicology research, or working to reduce laboratory animal distress.  If you know any toxicologists or people who work with laboratory animals (oh the horror), please pass this information along!  We need to convert them to non-animal-using-methods.  :)

Call for Proposals: CAAT 2010-2011 Grants
——————————————————-

The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) is soliciting projects which focus on the implementation of the NAS Report: Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy in the following areas:

• Proposals relating to toxicology: maximum grant amount is $25,000 per year. These grants should be developed to provide understanding of mechanism/mode of action and to consider how one would be able to translate the mechanism to a method that can be used to evaluate/predict health consequences. 

• Developmental Toxicology: maximum grant amount is $50,000 per year. The Center is interested in grants focusing on Developmental Neurotoxicology. These studies can be either in vitro, involve embryonic stem cells, or involving species such as c. elegans or zebrafish. These grants should be developed to provide understanding of mechanism/mode of action and to consider how one would be able to translate the mechanism to a method that can be used to evaluate/predict health consequences. Whole-animal, mammalian studies are not appropriate. To apply for such a grant, complete the preproposal form here and return so that the submission reaches us no later than March 2, 2009. For more information, please visit:
http://caat.jhsph.edu/programs/grants/preproposal.htm
 

2009 Animal Welfare Enhancement Awards: Call for Proposals
———————————————————————————Attention lab technicians, animal technicians, and all who work with laboratory animals: The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) now is accepting proposals for the 2009 Animal Welfare Enhancement Awards.

The focus of these awards is to refine the housing, handling and/or experimental situations for laboratory animals. Studies may, for example, examine:

• how physiological and behavioral stress responses to common husbandry (e.g., capture) and traditional treatment procedures (e.g., gavage, injection, blood collection) can be reduced or eliminated (e.g., by training the subjects to cooperate rather than resist);
• whether animals caged at different tier levels show different physiological and behavioral stress responses when being approached by personnel, and how these responses can be minimized or avoided;
• whether the presence of a compatible companion buffers physiological and behavioral stress responses to experimental situations (e.g., enforced restraint);
• whether animals kept in legally minimum-sized cages benefit from a moderate increase in space that is (a) empty versus (b) structured in species-appropriate ways (e.g., shelter, visual blind, perch, platform, PVC tube).

The deadline for submission is April 1, 2009. Applications will be reviewed by an international group of reviewers. CAAT then will make the final decisions on those proposals to be funded. Successful applicants will be funded by June 2009. Acceptance of this award implies that funds for this specific research are not currently available from other sources.

For more information, please visit:
http://caat.jhsph.edu/programs/awards/AWE/2009/proposals.htm

Categories : alternatives to animal testing, cruelty free