EARA Newsletter

November 10th 2025

EARA News Digest 2025 - Week 46

Welcome to your Monday morning update, from EARA, on the latest news in biomedical science, policy and openness on animal research.

This week:

First EARA conference wraps-up, with participants boasting about its success; Primate research phase-out approved as part of Dutch 2026 budget; Brain wave makes monkeys remember after a distraction; EU-Japan NHP Meeting concludes with focus on international collaboration.

First EARA conference wraps-up, with participants boasting about its success.

The first EARA Conference (#EARA2025) took place on 6–7 November at the Max Delbrück Center (MDC) in Berlin, co-organised with MDC and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The event gathered over 200 participants from 23 countries, including researchers, animal welfare officers, journalists, communicators and policy specialists, to exchange ideas on transparency, ethics and effective science communication.

Opening keynote speaker Fiona Fox, Chief Executive of the UK Science Media Centre, warned: “If we don’t talk about animal research, others will — and they’ll get it wrong.” She described how openness “pulled the rug from under the activists’ core accusation — secrecy,” transforming how UK media covers the topic.

In the Effective Science Communication and Media session, Sascha Karberg (Der Tagesspiegel) observed, “Acknowledging emotion does not replace rigour; it strengthens trust.” Volker Stollorz (Science Media Center Germany) urged continued cooperation between scientists and journalists as “a counterweight to misinformation and a guardian of quality.” Alba Morán-Álvarez (PhD) highlighted her outreach on TikTok: “People make health decisions from TikTok and AI — so experts have to show up there.” Andy Ridgway (University of the West of England) noted, “AI will not replace reporting, but it will reshape it.”

The final evening keynote by Lucie C. Côté (McGill University Health Centre) shared Canada’s rapid move towards a national transparency agreement: “Be ready, be open, be coordinated.”

On the second day, Susanna Louhimies (European Commission) reviewed 15 years of EU transparency and officially launched the redesign of the ALURES Non-Technical Summary Platform. “We use animals under a privilege — our side of the bargain is openness, accountability and rigour.”

Closing the conference, Kirk Leech, EARA Executive Director, celebrated the dialogue: “EARA2025 proved that when science opens up, trust grows.” He congratulated Sebastian Löser and Natascha Drude, winners of the flash-talk and poster prizes, and announced the new EARA website and its media bank (see below), as well as EARA 2027 in Lisbon!

Primate research phase-out approved as part of Dutch 2026 budget

The Dutch Senate has approved the 2026 budget for Education and Science, including a controversial amendment that will end public funding for primate research at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC) by 2030. Starting in 2026, the BPRC must redirect 40% of its subsidy to alternative research methods, increasing by 20% every year.

The amendment passed the lower house last July with limited debate, despite warnings from independent experts and several ministries. Senators were unable to vote on the amendment separately. Earlier pressure from EARA and others had delayed the budget vote to allow for closer scrutiny, but last week the budget, including this amendment, passed anyway.

In the same session, the Senate rejected a different motion to speed up the transition to animal-free science in general, suggesting limited appetite for a rapid shift away from animal research. If the Senate had the chance to voteagainst the BPRC amendment alone, rather than on the budget as a whole, the outcome could have been very different.

While the amendment aims to improve animal welfare by “safely reducing” primate research and accelerating the use of alternative methods, the actual consequences can be expected to be severe, as a sharp reduction in funding for primate research will jeopardise not only research but, first and foremost, the high animal welfare standards.

Brain wave makes monkeys remember after a distraction

Scientists in the US have discovered how the brain can recover from a distraction to return to the task at hand, in a study using monkeys.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) analysed the brain activity of monkeys while they were trying to remember an object they saw, but sometimes experienced one or two distractions that slowed them down or made them prone to mistakes.

While the monkeys were trying to return to the task at hand after the distraction, the brain activity in their prefrontal cortex, a region responsible for working memory, was coordinated in the form of a rotating wave. When they were able to return to it without making a mistake, their brain activity made a full circle, and when they made a mistake, the circle was incomplete.

The monkeys performed better when they had more time to answer the task after the distraction, suggesting that the brain needs that time to make a full circle and get back on track.

This study, published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, may help explain how the brain responds to memory challenges, findings which could also apply to humans.

EU-Japan NHP Meeting concludes with focus on international collaboration

The first EU-Simia Japan meeting took place at CNRS headquarters in Paris on 27-28 October 2025, gathering over 100 scientists specialising in primate biomedical research. Japanese researchers presented work on immunology, development, neurodegenerative diseases and decision-making mechanisms, while European and North American colleagues shared progress in vaccine therapies and neuro-technologies.

EARA Executive Director Kirk Leech presented on public awareness and policy engagement regarding non-human primate (NHP) research. His presentation addressed current challenges facing the field, including China's 2011 export ban that created supply shortages. Leech also talked about the EU regulatory constraints on using first generation offspring of wild-caught primates (F1 generation NHPs). The presentation included the discussions at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) about reclassifying long-tailed macaques as endangered, which would severely restrict international trade and further limit supply. Leech outlined EARA's work with the European Commission, Member Statesand research institutions to promote transparency and counter misinformation.