Ten Top Tips for Animal Ethics Application Success
7. Piloting and/or staging the project
Where novel techniques or experimental designs are proposed, and it is not clear what initial results will show (or whether adverse reactions may occur), AECs are typically cautious about allowing full animal numbers to be engaged in a project. In these circumstances, it is advisable to build an exploratory pilot into the project, or to apply for a stand-alone preliminary pilot study. This will confirm (or otherwise) the efficacy of the animal model/experimental design, and establish details such as humane endpoints, dose rates/timings, or bias caused by gender/ age issues, ahead of the full-blown project.
Similar approaches may be built into a staged experimental design. For instance, doses can be administered and assessed sequentially (i.e. from lowest to highest) to minimise use of animals if one of the lower doses proves effective.
Further resources:
- Experimental design and statistics (National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research, UK)
- Why do a pilot study? (National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research, UK)