This can change: by joining forces with health foundations, we can fund animal-free research together. This way we’ll improve the world for both animals and humans.
The Dutch Burns Foundation
In 2018, the Dutch Burns Foundation became the first Dutch health foundation to publicly declare that they would no longer fund research involving lab animals. Their policy of investing in animal-free research perfectly aligns with our mission, so we joined forces!
““We hope that this collaboration will give a boost to the transition towards animal-free research, which is a higher-quality form of research. And we hope that by working together, we can reach a broader audience with our message. Together with Proefdiervrij, we want to accelerate new developments in the medical world.”
Carine van Schie, research coordinator at the Dutch Burns Foundation
Collaborating with the Dutch Association of Collaborating Health Foundations
The Dutch Association of Collaborating Health Foundations (SGF) is an umbrella organization consisting of 24 Dutch health foundations. They are committed to preventing, curing, and treating human diseases.
We work with the SGF to bring animal-free innovations to health foundations’ attention. For example, together with SGF and the top sector Life Sciences & Health (LSH), we fund the development of human-based measurement models. These are research models that use human tissue and cells instead of animal models.
“To this day, the animal model is still often the standard in health research and, in some cases, even legally required. Despite the shift towards other models, which align much better with humans than animal models, large-scale adoption of these alternatives remains slow, often due to a lack of suitable alternatives. We aim to change that now by encouraging public-private partnerships for the development of human-based measurement models. In the long run, this will allow us to better prevent or more quickly cure diseases, enabling more people to live longer, healthier lives. That is our mission.”
Mark Monsma, director of the Dutch Association of Collaborating Health Foundations
What will be the next animal-free health foundation?
Our goal of creating an laboratory animal-free world cannot be achieved alone. We hope more health foundations will follow the inspiring example of the Dutch Burns Foundation and stop funding research that involves lab animals.
Do you work in the field and want to discuss this with us? Contact our science & innovation advisor, Anne Burgers. We’d love to collaborate!