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Our value and impact 2022-2023

Creating a better future, for animals and humans

Our year in numbers
£242,510

 of research funded

3

Home Office meetings attended

5

PhDs completed through the FRAME Lab

33

people attended our Training School in Norway and our experimental design training sessions hosted in the UK

43

Volunteers giving their time and expertise

£15,538

kindly donated by 807 wonderful people

13

generous legacy gifts received

16

like-minded companies and trusts supporting us

DONATIONS

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If you're reading this impact report then you likely want to end the use of animals in biomedical research and testing as much as we do. Thank you! That's our sole mission, to create a world where no animal suffers for science. And we're creating that world every day by refocusing funding on non-animal, human-centred methods that'll benefit animals and humans. We can only do this through your generous donations. Every policy briefing shared, research project funded, and student supported is made possible through our community of support. Please consider joining us today and becoming a FRAME donor.

Voices from the sector

Penny Hawkins, Head of Animals in Science Department at the RSPCA

“FRAME has been a highly-respected partner organisation for the RSPCA for many years. We share the same ultimate vision of replacing all animal experiments, along with an effective, evidence-based approach towards achieving this. We liaise regularly and can often join forces and support one another, particularly around the regulation of animal experiments and its interpretation and implementation. A joint communication from two credible and well-supported organisations, like FRAME and the RSPCA, carries a great deal of weight and together we can make a real difference for lab animals.”

Why we need your support

Did you know?

2.76 million

Scientific procedures involving live animals were carried out in Great Britain in 2022, a 10% decrease from 3.06 million procedures in 2021.

Did you know?

96%

of all procedures used mice, rats, birds, or fish.

Did you know?

1.51 million

Scientific procedures involving live animals were for the creation and breeding of genetically altered animals.

Voices from the sector

Professor Kate Millar, Centre for Applied Bioethics, School of Biosciences and School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham

“It is a pleasure to work with FRAME as not only does this partnership enable us to combine the expertise and skills of the Nottingham and FRAME teams, but it also combines our passions for creating meaningful change in research practice through training and education which raises awareness, transfers key knowledge and develops skills.”  

FRAME LAB

14/08/2023 | Written by FRAME

The FRAME Lab in partnership with the University of Nottingham is a vital part of our work. Their dedication to developing, validating and sharing non-animal approaches is inspiring.

This past year at the lab we’ve seen:

FRAME RESEARCH

Innovation Grants

We funded a further three pilot projects exploring new non-animal methods in 2022 following the successful launch of the Innovation Grants Scheme in 2021. Find out more about each of the projects below and the exciting new non-animal methods in development.

Hannah’s team will be developing a novel in vitro system to see how metastatic breast cancer spreads around the body. They’ve found a way of sampling signals sent to and from two populations of cells: they’re using an aggressive and invasive breast cancer cell line as the primary tumour and normal human lung cells as a secondary site. If it’s possible to identify the signals, in future, they may be able to block them, reduce cancer spread and improve patient outcomes.

 

Janine and her colleagues are developing a novel 3D in vitro model of the human intestine and its immune cells. Maintaining our gut requires an intricate ‘conversation’ between immune cells, epithelial cells lining the intestine, our diet, and our ‘good’ bacteria. Any miscommunication can result in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, such as Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis. Janine’s team will generate intestinal “organoids” from human stem cells and “gut-like” immune cells from cell lines to build a system to study how inflammation, diet, microbes, and drugs, influence immune responses in the gut.

Farideh’s team are developing 3D models of ovarian cancer to replace animals in drug development. We already know that 3D in vitro models of human cancer more closely resemble the disease in humans, but recent approaches have used material derived from animals which can limit how they translate to a human tumour ‘micro-environment’. Farideh will be creating an animal-free ovarian cancer model, testing it on known anti-cancer drugs, and comparing it to published human data.

FRAME RESEARCH

Summer Studentships

We funded five Summer Studentship projects in 2022 across the UK with a host of inspiring young scientists looking to develop their skills and knowledge in non-animal research.

Craig McHardy has just completed his undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Plymouth. He was awarded £2,820 to use an in vitro model of a fish gut to assess bioaccumulation of nanomaterials. The project hoped to demonstrate this model’s potential to replace a current regulatory test looking at the environmental toxicity of chemicals on fish.

It has the potential to replace the use of thousands of live fish in these tests each year. This project was supervised by Dr Nathaniel Clark. 

Read more about Craig’s project development of the in chemico digestibility assays as an alternative for in vivo fish bioaccumulation testing with nanomaterials.

Emilia Cross is about to start the final year of her Biology (Hons) Master’s degree at the University of York. She was awarded £2,769 to use online genetic data from cancer patients to study specific mutations linked to the incidence of bladder cancer. The aim is to improve knowledge of these mutations and their location. Bladder cancer research is often conducted in mice who have tumours induced using chemical carcinogens. Whilst genetically modified mice can be used to investigate genetic causes of disease, their use is restricted to the effect of specific genes.

Large patient studies such as this can provide much more human-relevant insight into the disease and its impact. This project was supervised by Dr Andrew Mason.

Read more about Emilia’s project uncovering the tissue-specific role of APOBEC mutagenesis in bladder cancer directly from patients.

Khush Saba has just completed the second year of her 4 year BEng Mechanical Engineering degree at Aston University, Birmingham. She was awarded £3,125 for a project aiming to identify ideal materials for use in an in vitro human blood vessel model that can then be used for heart disease research and future vascular graft development and testing. Heart disease currently affects over 7 million people in the UK so this project has huge potential to improve people’s lives and health. Her findings will be of interest, and use, to other researchers working on these types of blood vessel models.

Currently, thousands of animals are used in heart disease research and projects to test the viability of vascular grafts which this project would help reduce. This project was supervised by Dr Laura Leslie.

Read more about Khush’s project development of a non-animal vascular model for medical device testing – Materials Selection and Testing.

Maia Kazakova Garcia is currently studying for a BSc (Hons) in Biological Science (Biochemistry) at the University of Edinburgh. The £3,016 she was awarded allowed her to conduct a project learning more about the role of a particular protein (transcription factor) used to reprogramme body cells into stem cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs), with the aim of improving iPSC programming to make it more efficient and economic, and therefore more widely accessible in research.

IPSCs offer an alternative to human embryonic stem cells and are widely viewed as holding the key to drug development and disease research which can not only be human-relevant but personalised to be patient-specific. This has the potential to replace the use of animals across all areas of biomedical testing and research. This project was supervised by Dr Abdenour Soufi.

Read more about Maia’s project: Improving induced pluripotent stem cells programming to make human-relevant drug development and disease research more accessible.

Sarah Orr is about to start the final year of an MSc in Biomedical Genetics at Newcastle University and was awarded £2,005. Sarah’s project involved the use of kidney cells, obtained from the urine of patients, to study the development and progression of cystic kidney disease caused by a specific mutation. She is culturing the cells and recording their characteristics to potentially identify biomarkers that could be used in non-invasive urine screening tests.

This project has the potential to replace the use of genetically altered mice to study kidney disease and improve diagnostic tools for kidney disease. 1.8 million people in England alone have been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, and it’s believed around 1 million more may be living with it undiagnosed. The project was supervised by Professor John Sayer.

Read more about Sarah’s project use of urine-derived renal epithelial cells to investigate inherited cystic kidney diseases.

EDUCATION

14/08/2023 | Written by FRAME

Through our FRAME Lab and Training School in partnership with the University of Nottingham we continue to educate scientists and researchers around the world in ethics, experimental design best practice, and non-animal methods.

We’ve seen five amazing PhD students finish their studies with the FRAME Lab in 2022.

We’ve trained 102 PhD students in experimental design.

We’ve hosted 33 people on our Experimental Design and Statistical Analysis Training School in Norway.

Through inclusive education, we hope to increase the use of non-animal methods both in the UK and around the world. We believe this will create better science, a better workplace and, of course, a better world – for animals and humans!

Find out more about our latest work in education

Voices from the sector

Dr Lesley Gilmour, Named Training and Competency Officer, Biological Services, University of Glasgow and FRAME Trustee

“I wanted to be involved with FRAME because, although I believe that testing on animals is necessary for essential medical experiments, I also believe that there should be greater investment across the sector in the development and promotion of non-animal models in line with the commitment to replacement as licence holders under the Animals Scientific Procedures Act.

I believe that FRAME could help bridge the gap between research to develop non-animal models, and research where animal models are extensively used as standard by encouraging communication, collaboration and transparency.”  

POLICY

14/08/2023 | Written by FRAME

2022-23 was a busy year for policy work at FRAME and for our new Head of Policy and Programmes, Amy Beale, and Policy Officer, Jessie Hellier. We spent a lot of time developing our approach to policy and the work we want to undertake. It was a hands-on year full of contact with policymakers and governmental bodies, and here are a few of our highlights:

  • We published our first Policy Approach, outlining the three main areas of our policy work, and the steps we will take to advocate for positive change.
  • We sent a letter to the former Minister for Brexit Opportunities, Jacob Rees-Mogg, urging the government to use Brexit as an opportunity to accelerate its uptake of non-animal methods.
  • We briefed MPs ahead of the Westminster Hall debate “Ban commercial breeding for laboratories, implement reform to approach and use New Approach Methodologies (NAMs)”.
  • We published FRAME’s Impetus Report sharing views from experts within industry and academia, in answer to two key questions:
    • What are the areas of biomedical research or testing where animals are currently used but could be replaced in the short term (5-10 years)?
    • What are the areas of biomedical research or testing where replacement looks unlikely in the long term (20+ years)?
  • We attended and contributed to three Animal Protection and Welfare Stakeholder Group meetings at the Home Office.
  • We submitted evidence to four government enquiries, proposals and commissions:
    • The Commons Science and Technology Committees ‘My Science Enquiry’. We highlighted the opportunity to strengthen requirements to search for non-animal approaches, and the opportunities to prioritise non-animal methods and the enforcement of replacement.
    • The round tables held by the new Advanced Research and Invention Agency. We discussed how funding could transform disease research and drug development through the progression and validation of human cell-based models.
    • The Home Office commissioned call for evidence on the Forced Swim Test by the Animals in Science Committee. We shared our stance that the test should be ended and funding directed into non-animal methods and tools.
    • The UK Committee on Research Integrity’s draft strategic plan. We pushed for non-animal methods to be at the forefront of conversations around research integrity, and provided feedback on how their strategy could be improved in line with this.

We’ve big ambitions for our policy work, and will continue to push for change. We’re already underway with some exciting projects that we look forward to sharing with you soon!

Find out more about our latest policy work Impetus Project Report: What is needed to replace animals in biomedical research?

VOLUNTEERING

14/08/2023 | Written by FRAME

Over 40 generous volunteers donated their time and skills to FRAME in 2022-23. Here are some of the ways they supported our work:

  • Our Trustees served as key ambassadors for the charity and provided oversight of our work.
  • 33 Scientific Advisory Panel members shared their expertise and helped us choose the best projects to award research grants to.
  • Multiple volunteers conducted research to help us identify the best ways to focus our work on replacing animal testing.
  • Volunteer bloggers wrote about their experiences in the replacement to animal testing sector.
  • Fundraising volunteers helped the team share our work and vision with the world.

We’re deeply grateful to our dedicated and hardworking volunteers. They’re essential to our team and we couldn’t accomplish our mission without them.

Current volunteer opportunities

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who has supported FRAME this year. Together we will create a better world, for animals and humans!

THANK YOUS

Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers, collaborators and donors who supported us in 2022-2023. We could not continue in our work without you.

  • Alliance for Human Relevant Science
  • University of Nottingham  

  • Marjorie Coote Animal Charity Trust 
  • South Square Trust 
  • The Barbara Welby Trust 
  • Walker 597 Trust 
  • The Toye Charitable Trust 
  • Margaret Smith 
  • Donald West 
  • Luela Palmer 
  • Eleanor Wexler 
  • John Allen Brace 
  • John Raddings 
  • Next 
  • Johnson & Johnson 
  • Boots 
  • The Kennel Club 
  • Lanes Health
  • Avon 
  • Bios Line 
  • British Chemicals Association 

And all those who wish to remain anonymous

Our FRAME Trustees

  • Dr Anja Petrie
  • Dr Carol Treasure
  • George Gill
  • Dr Kathrin Herrmann
  • Dr Lesley Gilmour
  • Sara Carbone

Our FRAME volunteers

  • Dr Adam Odell
  • Dr Adjanie Patabendige
  • Dr Ali Athab Al-Kinani
  • Amy McNally
  • Anjali Krishna Amrutharaj
  • Dr Anke Bruning-Richardson
  • Dr Christiane Kafarnik
  • Prof Clare Stanford
  • Dr Dania Movia
  • Prof David Kendall
  • Dr Debbie Guest
  • Dr Deena Gendoo
  • Dr Elad Katz
  • Dr Elisabete Silva
  • Dr Farideh Javid
  • Dr Gertrude-Emilia Costin
  • Harriet Giddings
  • Dr Ignacio Tripodi
  • Dr Iva Sovadinová
  • Justyna Resztak
  • Marion Owen
  • Dr Nathaniel Clark
  • Dr Neil Marr
  • Dr Renato Ivan de Ávila
  • Dr Richard Gillis
  • Dr Scott Roberts
  • Dr Seyed Mojtaba Ghiasi
  • Dr Simon Baines
  • Vanessa Bittencourt
  • Virginia Hernandez

And all those who wish to remain anonymous

The Money

Read more on the charity commission website
14/08/2023 | Written by FRAME

We are very grateful to all the individuals, companies, and foundations who make our work possible. We currently receive no government funding so we rely entirely on the generosity of people who believe in our vision of a world where non-animal methods are considered scientific best practice.

In 2022-23 the majority of our income came from legacies (gifts in wills) with additional income from donations, fundraising, and our publications. Our total income was £432,663.

Our total expenditure for 2022-23 was £625,164 with 95% being spent on grants to institutions or charitable activities including the running of our grants programme as well as our education, outreach, and policy work.

Our strategy for a brighter future

The future of FRAME

We are dedicated to creating a better world, for animals and humans. 

We will do this by:

  • Building on our education work to ensure people in the UK learn about alternatives to animal research as early as possible in their education.
  • Funding research into non-animal or ‘new approach’ methods.
  • Pushing to end the bias towards animal testing in publishing and raise the profile of the excellent non-animal methods available.
  • Support researchers to search for alternatives and approach their research without the use of animals.
  • Support funders to challenge the use of animals in research they are funding.
  • Launch a new education resource for University students and postgraduates to help them find non-animal opportunities.

Finally, we cannot achieve our mission alone. We will continue to engage with universities, students, government, MPs and industry on important issues surrounding the adoption of non-animal methods. 

Together we will create a world where no animal suffers for science.

 
#teamFRAME
Meet the people making it happen.
Meet the Team

Read our previous impact reports

14/08/2023 | Written by FRAME
Impact Report 2021-2022 Impact Report 2020-2021

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