White Paper on animal experiments

In the declaration, the MPG emphasizes the importance of animal experiments in basic research and acknowledges the responsibility that each and every scientist takes for the research animals.

In addition, the MPG is committed to undertake a series of measures that will contribute to the welfare of the animals and promote a "culture of caring". These include, among other things, finding ways to improve the implementation of the 3R principle, using research results to minimize the number of trials, regular training of all of those working with animals in questions concerning animal ethics and the transparent presentation of animal experiments.

The White Paper was drafted by an international commission of life science researchers from many different research areas. Members of the group included neuroscientists, behavioral researchers, ethicists as well as communication experts and research policy personalities. The head of the commission was the brain researcher Wolf Singer who is also the former director of the MPI for Brain Research and is currently a researcher at the Ernst Strüngmann Institute in Frankfurt.

The white paper is available as download in German and English.