BBSRC PHD Student Summer School to Advance the 3Rs - Alissa Plant
NC3Rs Summer School Summary - Birmingham June 2025
I was recently afforded the opportunity to attend a three-day summer school run by the national center for the replacement, refinement and reduction of animals in research (NC3Rs). This school aims to bring together NC3R and BBSRC funded PhD students from across the UK and engage us with the principles of the three Rs in the context of our research. Over the course of the three days, there were many opportunities to grow skills that are not only crucial to champion ethical animal research but will be important in future careers
The summer school had a mix of workshops, talks, and interactive activities. There was sessions on science communication on each day, focusing on taking the three R centered approach to discussing our projects which made many of us view our projects from a different angle and think about the words we use to communicate to different audiences, from people in lab meetings to conferences to the general public.
There were talks on practical tools for project planning, handling setbacks, and maintaining perspective during a PhD and beyond as well as public engagement focusing on language and how to best engage with the public including advice on talking about controversial or taboo topics such as animal research. We had talks on experimental design and statistics which highlighted many common pitfalls when planning animals' studies and how to address these to produce robust methods.
Attending this summer school has deepened my understanding of how the three Rs should be considered in all biomedical research. This school has given me practical tools and built upon communication skills through allowing the opportunity to write and present to different audiences. This was also a great opportunity for networking with different PhD students from different programs from across the UK, they had organized events in the evening and had multiple interactive activities to do in groups with allowed for socializing in a more relaxed setting. Overall, this was a highly rewarding experience, and I would highly recommend it for anyone that will be working with animals or working on replacing animal models in an aspect of research to apply for the next one.