Animal Welfare Research Network: Building research quality, capacity and impact.
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch of Biological Sciences
Abstract
Animal welfare is a major societal concern. For example, in a survey of nearly 28,000 EU citizens, 94% believed that it was important to protect the welfare of farmed animals, and within the UK this proportion was 98%, with 78% stating it was very important to do so (Special Eurobarometer 442, 2016). As we enter a post Brexit era, animal welfare is high on the agenda, with debates on the issue often highly charged and emotive, and open to vested interests and biased arguments. In this context there is therefore a pressing need for animal welfare researchers to provide an objective scientific evidence base and a way to disseminate findings and achieve impact that enhances animal welfare.
The Animal Welfare Research Network (AWRN) was established in 2016 to meet this need. It recognised that animal welfare science is a relatively new discipline driven by a comparatively small number of researchers and encompassing multiple scientific areas including, but not limited to; behavioural biology, neuroscience, physiology, veterinary and agricultural science, epidemiology, computer and data science, and social science. The AWRN therefore provides a mechanism to bring together a diverse range of stakeholders in order to facilitate the exchange of ideas and skills, identify and target key animal welfare issues, and drive collaboration at all levels from fundamental science to implementation of welfare improvement schemes. The AWRN has proven highly successful, with a diverse membership that has grown to 785 including researchers from animal welfare and other related fields, as well as representatives from charities, industry, research funding organisations, policy makers and government. Surveys indicate that members have benefitted considerably by forming new collaborations, improving their research skills, improving their understanding of animal welfare research, becoming more aware of opportunities in the area, and achieving grant funding success. To date, the AWRN has run 4 annual meetings, 2 grant writing workshops, coordinated 16 member led workshops, sent out monthly newsletters, established an active website, and promoted animal welfare research.
In the next phase of the AWRN we plan to build on the successes and impacts achieved to date by progressing the network through the introduction of a number of new initiatives and activities that reflect developments in animal welfare science, funding opportunities, and the needs of our members. These aim to further build animal welfare research quality, capacity and impact and will include: (1) Running a new Kick-start funding competition to drive forward novel animal welfare research ideas (e.g. by supporting pilot data collection, and brainstorming days with collaborators) that lead to future UKRI and other grant applications. (2) Developing and running new Early Career Researcher (ECR) mentoring and lab placement schemes, in recognition of the importance of supporting the development of ECRs to build further capacity and quality in animal welfare science. (3) Engaging in outreach activities to educate and inform the public on animal welfare science. (4) Running annual meetings that address important emerging topics in animal welfare science, incorporating networking activities and workshops (e.g. grant writing). (5) Funding three member led workshops per year to bring together animal welfare researchers and stakeholders / researchers from other relevant areas to address emerging topics of interest, run training sessions, and develop new contacts and collaborations. (6) Maintaining and developing our website (awrn.co.uk) to showcase achievements and impact in animal welfare research, enhance member-only content and resources, and add an international members section. (7) Continuing to grow our membership, with a particular focus on attracting additional industry and charity stakeholders. (8) Exploring future funding opportunities to future proof the network.
The Animal Welfare Research Network (AWRN) was established in 2016 to meet this need. It recognised that animal welfare science is a relatively new discipline driven by a comparatively small number of researchers and encompassing multiple scientific areas including, but not limited to; behavioural biology, neuroscience, physiology, veterinary and agricultural science, epidemiology, computer and data science, and social science. The AWRN therefore provides a mechanism to bring together a diverse range of stakeholders in order to facilitate the exchange of ideas and skills, identify and target key animal welfare issues, and drive collaboration at all levels from fundamental science to implementation of welfare improvement schemes. The AWRN has proven highly successful, with a diverse membership that has grown to 785 including researchers from animal welfare and other related fields, as well as representatives from charities, industry, research funding organisations, policy makers and government. Surveys indicate that members have benefitted considerably by forming new collaborations, improving their research skills, improving their understanding of animal welfare research, becoming more aware of opportunities in the area, and achieving grant funding success. To date, the AWRN has run 4 annual meetings, 2 grant writing workshops, coordinated 16 member led workshops, sent out monthly newsletters, established an active website, and promoted animal welfare research.
In the next phase of the AWRN we plan to build on the successes and impacts achieved to date by progressing the network through the introduction of a number of new initiatives and activities that reflect developments in animal welfare science, funding opportunities, and the needs of our members. These aim to further build animal welfare research quality, capacity and impact and will include: (1) Running a new Kick-start funding competition to drive forward novel animal welfare research ideas (e.g. by supporting pilot data collection, and brainstorming days with collaborators) that lead to future UKRI and other grant applications. (2) Developing and running new Early Career Researcher (ECR) mentoring and lab placement schemes, in recognition of the importance of supporting the development of ECRs to build further capacity and quality in animal welfare science. (3) Engaging in outreach activities to educate and inform the public on animal welfare science. (4) Running annual meetings that address important emerging topics in animal welfare science, incorporating networking activities and workshops (e.g. grant writing). (5) Funding three member led workshops per year to bring together animal welfare researchers and stakeholders / researchers from other relevant areas to address emerging topics of interest, run training sessions, and develop new contacts and collaborations. (6) Maintaining and developing our website (awrn.co.uk) to showcase achievements and impact in animal welfare research, enhance member-only content and resources, and add an international members section. (7) Continuing to grow our membership, with a particular focus on attracting additional industry and charity stakeholders. (8) Exploring future funding opportunities to future proof the network.
Technical Summary
Animal welfare is a major societal concern, particularly as we enter a post Brexit era. In recognition of the multidisciplinary nature of animal welfare science, the Animal Welfare Research Network (AWRN), established in 2016, brings together a diverse range of stakeholders including; researchers, charities, industry, research funding organisations, policy makers and government. The AWRN has proven highly successful, with a current membership of 785, providing a mechanism for the exchange of ideas and skills, identifying animal welfare issues, and driving collaborative science to provide an objective evidence base spanning from fundamental research to implementation.
In the next phase the AWRN aims to further build animal welfare research quality, capacity and impact through the following activities. (1) Running a new Kick-start funding competition to drive forward novel animal welfare research ideas (e.g. by supporting pilot data collection, and brainstorming days with collaborators) that lead to future UKRI and other grant applications. (2) Developing and running new Early Career Researcher (ECR) mentoring and lab placement schemes, in recognition of the importance of supporting ECRs. (3) Engaging in outreach activities to educate and inform the public on animal welfare science. (4) Running annual meetings that address emerging topics in animal welfare science, incorporating networking activities and workshops (e.g. grant writing). (5) Funding three member-led workshops per year to bring together animal welfare researchers and stakeholders / researchers from other relevant areas to address topics of interest. (6) Maintaining and developing our website (awrn.co.uk) to showcase achievements, enhance the member-only content, and add an international members section. (7) Continuing to grow our membership, with a particular focus on attracting additional industry and charity stakeholders. (8) Exploring future funding opportunities to future proof the network.
In the next phase the AWRN aims to further build animal welfare research quality, capacity and impact through the following activities. (1) Running a new Kick-start funding competition to drive forward novel animal welfare research ideas (e.g. by supporting pilot data collection, and brainstorming days with collaborators) that lead to future UKRI and other grant applications. (2) Developing and running new Early Career Researcher (ECR) mentoring and lab placement schemes, in recognition of the importance of supporting ECRs. (3) Engaging in outreach activities to educate and inform the public on animal welfare science. (4) Running annual meetings that address emerging topics in animal welfare science, incorporating networking activities and workshops (e.g. grant writing). (5) Funding three member-led workshops per year to bring together animal welfare researchers and stakeholders / researchers from other relevant areas to address topics of interest. (6) Maintaining and developing our website (awrn.co.uk) to showcase achievements, enhance the member-only content, and add an international members section. (7) Continuing to grow our membership, with a particular focus on attracting additional industry and charity stakeholders. (8) Exploring future funding opportunities to future proof the network.
Organisations
- Queen's University Belfast (Lead Research Organisation)
- UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN (Collaboration)
- The Donkey Sanctuary (Collaboration)
- Pig Improvement Company (PIC) (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF READING (Collaboration)
- Royal Veterinary College (RVC) (Collaboration)
- Scotland's Rural College (Collaboration)
- University of Teramo (Collaboration)
- Tesco (United Kingdom) (Collaboration)
Publications
Lanzoni L
(2023)
Review: The challenge to integrate animal welfare indicators into the Life Cycle Assessment
in animal
Maggs HC
(2023)
The value of donkeys to livelihood provision in northern Ghana.
in PloS one
| Description | Defra Call for Evidence on Labelling for Animal Welfare |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | https://consult.defra.gov.uk/animal-welfare-market-interventions-and-labelling/labelling-for-animal-... |
| Description | Production of Stakeholder Advisory Board Research Priorities |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| URL | https://awrn.co.uk/2023/10/11/awrn-stakeholder-advisory-board-research-priorities/ |
| Description | AWRN Lab Exchange Amanda Bartlett Ongoing Collaboration |
| Organisation | University of Wolverhampton |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | AWRN funded a Lab Exchange for Amanda Bartlett (a PhD student at University of Portsmouth) to learn techniques from Stefano Vaglio at University of Wolverhampton. She has been able to bring her planned research to the collaboration but expand and refine it to complement both recently completed and ongoing research conducted by Dr Vaglio and his team with other primate species. It will help to broaden the scope of the studies and to offer opportunities to validate techniques on alternative species all with the aim of supporting captive welfare. |
| Collaborator Contribution | General training and experience within a laboratory setting, with varied equipment; training in endocrinology analysis including the preparation of faecal samples, extraction of hormones and subsequent analysis and reading of results. The collaboration has bought mentorship, has provided for access to the exchange laboratory throughout the period of her PhD research with an offer to cover the costs of consumables under the umbrella of their ongoing research budget. They have offered an opportunity for their undergraduate students to collect data for her project as part of the summer project, experience for them, bigger sample size for her. Additionally they have offered access to further training and technology to work with the synthesis of species-specific scent to determine if this can promote natural behaviours linked to positive welfare, and to support breeding behaviour within their breeding schemes to support genetic diversity. It is not possible to quantify at this stage the cost of consumables as the longevity and scope of the initial project has no the opportunity to grow. However the ELISA hormone testing kits are valued at c £500 each, covering c 50 samples. It is likely that there will be around 400+ samples to analyse related to the initial project design. |
| Impact | A document of mutual understanding has resulted from the lab exchange scheme with the intention of publishing the outcomes of the studies to which both parties are contributing in industry-appropriate, peer-reviewed journals. It is intended that the findings will enhance husbandry guidelines and protocol for species in the callitrichid family of primates to support evidence based welfare . Further areas of research are being considered. Disciplines involved: Endocrinology, Animal Welfare & Behaviour. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | AWRN Mentoring Pairing leads to collaboration for research |
| Organisation | Royal Veterinary College (RVC) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The AWRN team organised a mentoring scheme for Early Career Researchers. We carefully paired up ECR's with more senior researchers, matched for topics and areas they required mentoring in. As the matching in the mentoring programme was made according to the research field, this collaboration was very fruitful, resulting in a research project on the approach to integrate animal welfare indicators in life cycle assessment. Regular meetings were held and a scoping review was carried out on this topic (currently in the last stage of review in an international scientific journal). The work was also presented at the AWRN annual meeting held in January 2023 in Newcastle. When the mentoring scheme was run again at the end of 2022, the researchers involved felt that the mentoring had been so successful that they would opt to continue with their mentoring relationship for at least another year. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The University of Teramo bears the costs of the congress presentation and scientific publication. |
| Impact | Scientific paper: Review: The challenge to integrate Animal Welfare indicators into the Life Cycle Assessment (L. Lanzoni , L. Whatford , A. Atzori, M. Chincarini, M. Giammarco, I. Fusaro and G. Vignola., 2023) - under the last reviewing stage of a scientific journal, Scoping review protocol deposited in OSF: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/XMJ87 Conference presentation: Measuring sustainability in a One Welfare perspective: the integration of animal welfare with Life Cycle Assessment - a scoping review (L. Lanzoni , L. Whatford , A. Atzori, M. Chincarini, M. Giammarco, I. Fusaro and G. Vignola), 2023 - AWRN annual meeting, January 2023, Newcastle, UK |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | AWRN Mentoring Pairing leads to collaboration for research |
| Organisation | University of Teramo |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The AWRN team organised a mentoring scheme for Early Career Researchers. We carefully paired up ECR's with more senior researchers, matched for topics and areas they required mentoring in. As the matching in the mentoring programme was made according to the research field, this collaboration was very fruitful, resulting in a research project on the approach to integrate animal welfare indicators in life cycle assessment. Regular meetings were held and a scoping review was carried out on this topic (currently in the last stage of review in an international scientific journal). The work was also presented at the AWRN annual meeting held in January 2023 in Newcastle. When the mentoring scheme was run again at the end of 2022, the researchers involved felt that the mentoring had been so successful that they would opt to continue with their mentoring relationship for at least another year. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The University of Teramo bears the costs of the congress presentation and scientific publication. |
| Impact | Scientific paper: Review: The challenge to integrate Animal Welfare indicators into the Life Cycle Assessment (L. Lanzoni , L. Whatford , A. Atzori, M. Chincarini, M. Giammarco, I. Fusaro and G. Vignola., 2023) - under the last reviewing stage of a scientific journal, Scoping review protocol deposited in OSF: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/XMJ87 Conference presentation: Measuring sustainability in a One Welfare perspective: the integration of animal welfare with Life Cycle Assessment - a scoping review (L. Lanzoni , L. Whatford , A. Atzori, M. Chincarini, M. Giammarco, I. Fusaro and G. Vignola), 2023 - AWRN annual meeting, January 2023, Newcastle, UK |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | DTP PhD Studentship "The role of genotype and cognitive ability in the navigation of social chaos" |
| Organisation | Pig Improvement Company (PIC) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Turner (SRUC) and Fisher (University of Aberdeen) co-organised an AWRN-funded workshop on use of social network analysis to improve animal welfare. As a direct result of this first contact between Turner and Fisher and the discussions held at the workshop, an Eastbio DTP application was submitted and funded which builds on the workshop by using dynamic social network analysis to understand resolution of aggression between unfamiliar animals. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Fisher is a co-supervisor of the recently appointed PhD student (studentship beginning in October 2024). He brings expertise in dynamic rather than the more conventional static analysis of social structure which is crucial to the PhD. |
| Impact | Successfully secured funding and appointed student to a PhD position that directly flowed from the initial contact and discussions held at an AWRN workshop. Without the workshop contact would not have been made and the PhD application would not have been written. The PhD is multidisciplinary (animal welfare science, pure and applied ethology, quantitative and molecular genetics, cognition) and a collaboration between academic institutes and industry (animal breeding). |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | DTP PhD Studentship "The role of genotype and cognitive ability in the navigation of social chaos" |
| Organisation | Scotland's Rural College |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Turner (SRUC) and Fisher (University of Aberdeen) co-organised an AWRN-funded workshop on use of social network analysis to improve animal welfare. As a direct result of this first contact between Turner and Fisher and the discussions held at the workshop, an Eastbio DTP application was submitted and funded which builds on the workshop by using dynamic social network analysis to understand resolution of aggression between unfamiliar animals. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Fisher is a co-supervisor of the recently appointed PhD student (studentship beginning in October 2024). He brings expertise in dynamic rather than the more conventional static analysis of social structure which is crucial to the PhD. |
| Impact | Successfully secured funding and appointed student to a PhD position that directly flowed from the initial contact and discussions held at an AWRN workshop. Without the workshop contact would not have been made and the PhD application would not have been written. The PhD is multidisciplinary (animal welfare science, pure and applied ethology, quantitative and molecular genetics, cognition) and a collaboration between academic institutes and industry (animal breeding). |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | DTP PhD Studentship "The role of genotype and cognitive ability in the navigation of social chaos" |
| Organisation | University of Aberdeen |
| Department | School of Biological Sciences Aberdeen |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Turner (SRUC) and Fisher (University of Aberdeen) co-organised an AWRN-funded workshop on use of social network analysis to improve animal welfare. As a direct result of this first contact between Turner and Fisher and the discussions held at the workshop, an Eastbio DTP application was submitted and funded which builds on the workshop by using dynamic social network analysis to understand resolution of aggression between unfamiliar animals. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Fisher is a co-supervisor of the recently appointed PhD student (studentship beginning in October 2024). He brings expertise in dynamic rather than the more conventional static analysis of social structure which is crucial to the PhD. |
| Impact | Successfully secured funding and appointed student to a PhD position that directly flowed from the initial contact and discussions held at an AWRN workshop. Without the workshop contact would not have been made and the PhD application would not have been written. The PhD is multidisciplinary (animal welfare science, pure and applied ethology, quantitative and molecular genetics, cognition) and a collaboration between academic institutes and industry (animal breeding). |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | DTP PhD Studentship "The role of genotype and cognitive ability in the navigation of social chaos" |
| Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
| Department | The Roslin Institute |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Turner (SRUC) and Fisher (University of Aberdeen) co-organised an AWRN-funded workshop on use of social network analysis to improve animal welfare. As a direct result of this first contact between Turner and Fisher and the discussions held at the workshop, an Eastbio DTP application was submitted and funded which builds on the workshop by using dynamic social network analysis to understand resolution of aggression between unfamiliar animals. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Fisher is a co-supervisor of the recently appointed PhD student (studentship beginning in October 2024). He brings expertise in dynamic rather than the more conventional static analysis of social structure which is crucial to the PhD. |
| Impact | Successfully secured funding and appointed student to a PhD position that directly flowed from the initial contact and discussions held at an AWRN workshop. Without the workshop contact would not have been made and the PhD application would not have been written. The PhD is multidisciplinary (animal welfare science, pure and applied ethology, quantitative and molecular genetics, cognition) and a collaboration between academic institutes and industry (animal breeding). |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Reading University and the Donkey Sanctuary |
| Organisation | The Donkey Sanctuary |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | A 34 month Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Reading University and The Donkey Sanctuary (Sidmouth) arising from networking activity of the first AWRN BBSRC grant and has been growing since. Reading is providing research project ideas and supervision of PhD students. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Donkey Sanctuary is providing ideas, facilities and resources for research, plus sponsorship of PhD students. |
| Impact | Conference paper: Bennett, Richard & Pfuderer, Simone, 2019. "Demand for donkey hides and implications for global donkey populations," 93rd Annual Conference, April 15-17, 2019, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 289683, Agricultural Economics Society - AES. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Reading University and the Donkey Sanctuary |
| Organisation | University of Reading |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | A 34 month Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Reading University and The Donkey Sanctuary (Sidmouth) arising from networking activity of the first AWRN BBSRC grant and has been growing since. Reading is providing research project ideas and supervision of PhD students. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Donkey Sanctuary is providing ideas, facilities and resources for research, plus sponsorship of PhD students. |
| Impact | Conference paper: Bennett, Richard & Pfuderer, Simone, 2019. "Demand for donkey hides and implications for global donkey populations," 93rd Annual Conference, April 15-17, 2019, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 289683, Agricultural Economics Society - AES. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | SRUC and Tesco |
| Organisation | Scotland's Rural College |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The Seventh Meeting of the Animal Welfare Research Network aimed to bring together researchers in animal welfare and related topics, with stakeholders. By offering speaking slots to stakeholders, directly inviting stakeholders to the event, offering breakout groups (to facilitate discussions) and networking opportunities, we have facilitated these researchers and retailers in forming a collaboration. |
| Collaborator Contribution | A meeting (at the AWRN Annual Meeting) catalysed a follow-up discussion between SRUC animal welfare researchers (led by Simon Turner, a member of the Coordinating Group of the AWRN) and Tesco red meat supply chain staff and sharing of documentation on existing research portfolio. This has led to agreement for regular meetings to more closely align industry needs and research in the area of cattle and sheep behaviour and welfare. |
| Impact | No outputs yet, but the collaboration has just started. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | SRUC and Tesco |
| Organisation | Tesco Plc |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | The Seventh Meeting of the Animal Welfare Research Network aimed to bring together researchers in animal welfare and related topics, with stakeholders. By offering speaking slots to stakeholders, directly inviting stakeholders to the event, offering breakout groups (to facilitate discussions) and networking opportunities, we have facilitated these researchers and retailers in forming a collaboration. |
| Collaborator Contribution | A meeting (at the AWRN Annual Meeting) catalysed a follow-up discussion between SRUC animal welfare researchers (led by Simon Turner, a member of the Coordinating Group of the AWRN) and Tesco red meat supply chain staff and sharing of documentation on existing research portfolio. This has led to agreement for regular meetings to more closely align industry needs and research in the area of cattle and sheep behaviour and welfare. |
| Impact | No outputs yet, but the collaboration has just started. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | 75th Celebration of Research at Bristol Vet School |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Just over 100 people attended a celebration of 75 years of research at the Bristol Vet School. The AWRN presented a stand with a poster and leaflets advertising the upcoming meetings and funding schemes that we are currently running to the interdiscplinary audience attending the event. In addition Benjamin Lecorps presented a poster on the work completed as part of the Kick Start funding project we funded and he undertook in 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | AWRN Early Career Researcher Monthly Meet Ups |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | In the current grant we are continuing to run online Meet Ups for the Early Career Researchers (ECR's) every month. These enable us (AWRN Network Manager and ECR Committee) to offer support and development opportunities for our ECR's and help them to develop a support network. We get anything up to 30 people attending the sessions, depending upon the topic / timing. During the last year the topics covered in these sessions included: "Experimental Design", "Meet your new ECR Team", "Boosting your confidence when presenting", "Practice presentations", "Power calculations", "Journal club", "Interests: whose do we consider when we do animal welfare science, and why does it matter?", "Combining parenting / caring with a research career", "Christmas Social", "Highlights of the Seventh Annual Meeting of the AWRN" and "Teaching / Lecturing Clinic for ECR's" . Key talks from these are recorded and uploaded to the AWRN website (members only section). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| Description | AWRN Website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The AWRN website was established with two sections. The first is a public-facing section which describes what the AWRN is, what we do, promotes current research in the field and increases knowledge about animal welfare research. There is also information about upcoming meetings and reports from past meetings, interviews with key animal welfare researchers, details of researchers looking for work in animal welfare research and details of membership in this section. The other part of the AWRN website can only be viewed by members when they are logged in, this has recordings and materials from previous AWRN meetings, workshops and ECR monthly meet ups, a members directory and forums for discussion. Although set up in the original AWRN grant, both parts of the website are regularly updated with current research articles and presentations from meetings as well as job and funding opportunities and upcoming meetings, meaning it is highly relevant to this grant as an ongoing project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| Description | AWRN-Funded Workshop on ECR Networking |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Around 25 people attended a workshop at University of Bristol which aimed to allow ECRs in Animal Welfare to talk to each other in an informal setting, to gain advice from more senior colleagues, generate ideas for collaboration and new research directions, share experiences of career pathways and generate ways to achieve real change for animals. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | AWRN-Funded Workshop on Human-Animal, Machine-Animal Interactions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 38 delegates attended a workshop which aimed to bring together researchers from a range of disciplines and sectors to foster collaborative approaches to better understand the animal welfare implications of automation and human-animal and machine-animal interactions. The organisers of the workshop have since produced a paper from the breakout group sessions which took place at the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | AWRN-funded Workshop on Insects as Mini-Livestock |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 89 people attended this online workshop which aimed to explore questions such as: Are insects sentient? Should welfare standards and regulations be in place for sectors involving insects? Is insect farming ethical? Should we be farming insects at all? If so, should we be feeding them to other livestock or eating them ourselves (or both)? There were talks from experts in insect sentience and from those working for insect farming companies, followed by breakout groups to enable delegates to fully participate in discussions. The workshop was organised by AWRN members and facilitated by the AWRN Network Manager. There has been considerable interest in this workshop and requests to view the talks since it took place. The talks will be uploaded to the AWRN website and we are in discussions about sharing them more widely. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | AWRN-funded workshop on Systems Thinking |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Around 20 people attended a workshop which aimed to introduce delegates to systems thinking and empower them to use holistic approaches to identify important research topics, enhance collaboration and support and encourage research activities using a more strategic direction. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Animal Welfare and Sustainability Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This workshop aimed to increase the awareness of animal welfare scientists of the challenges posed by climate change and to encourage future work and collaborations on this topic. 114 delegates attended this online workshop, with speakers which included talks from invited speakers, followed by discussions. There was a huge amount of interest in this workshop and we have received numerous requests for access to the videos of the talks since the event took place. We will upload the talks to the AWRN website (members only section) and are in discussions about sharing the talks more widely. The organisers are also considering the possibility of running a follow-on workshop on a more specific aspect of animal welfare and sustainability. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | ECR Monthly Meet Ups 2023-24 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | We have organised and run monthly meet ups for our Early Career Researchers. This year they were on: Stakeholder Research Priorities, Writing Good Applications, Self-care and Reflections, Publishing in Scientific Journals, Statistics and Experimental Design, Introducing the Insect Welfare Research Society, The PhD Journey, How can we be more inclusive researchers?, Writing Workshop, Open Science plus social / networking events. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| Description | Invited UKRI webinar to provide an overview of the Animal Welfare Research Network. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This invited webinar provided an overview of the Animal Welfare Research Network to staff at UKRI. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Invited talk to the Collaborative Working Group for European Animal Health and Welfare Research. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An invited presentation to the Collaborative Working Group for European Animal Health and Welfare Research. The talk provided an overview of the Animal Welfare Research Network. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Lydia Lanzoni Presentation at Seventh Annual Meeting of the AWRN |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Lydia Lanzoni gave a presentation at the Seventh Annual Meeting of the AWRN titled "Measuring sustainability in a One Welfare perspective: the integration of animal welfare with Life Cycle Assessment - a scoping review". Louise Whatford was a co-author on this talk and the work came out of a collaboration which started when they were paired together in the AWRN Mentoring Scheme (see collaborations). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Seventh Annual Meeting of the AWRN |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We planned and ran this two-day conference on the theme of "Animal Welfare and Society". The conference was originally planned for September, but had to be postponed at the last minute due to the funeral of the Queen, so it has been planned twice! The conference was attended by around 110 delegates, made up of researchers and postgraduate students from animal welfare and related fields, representatives from industry, policy makers and the third sector. Sessions in the meeting included: The role of animal welfare science in society, Perspectives and understanding of stakeholders, Taking animal welfare science into society and Novel developments in animal welfare science. In addition there were breakout groups enabling more detailed discussions of specific topics, including a particularly productive one on ways that we can improve useability of animal welfare science information to stakeholders to maximise impact. There was also a strong focus on Early Career Researcher (ECR) development with ECR's Chairing throughout the meeting, an ECR Plenary talk and an ECR focused breakout group (on "How to conference"). We gathered feedback from the delegates and they scored the meeting an average of 4.7 out of 5. Of the 16 respondents, 14 indicated that they made new connections / potential collaborations at the meeting. The outcomes and impacts from this meeting are still being developed, with various members of the Coordinating Group working on: compiling stakeholder friendly summaries of current research, starting awards for open science work, collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://awrn.co.uk/2023/03/14/seventh-annual-meeting-of-the-awrn/ |
| Description | Update to AWRN-Website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Update to the AWRN website to increase the impact of current research being published. At the Seventh Annual Meeting of the AWRN, a session was run which talked about how we can improve communication of animal welfare research to those who can make use of it (stakeholders and policy makers). As a result we consulted with our Stakeholder Advisory Board to put together a better format for our current research pages on the website. We then paid to change the current research pages into this stakeholder friendly format, with short summaries of the aims, background, approach, key findings and industry or policy relevance of any piece of research plus the route for practical application. Resources on the website have also been updated to include videos from workshops (Insects as Mini-Livestock; Animal Welfare and Sustainability; Human-Animal, Machine-Animal Interactions) and from the ECR Monthly Meet Ups. These include training resources for Early Career Researchers specifically and talks from researchers on key topics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://awrn.co.uk/category/current-research-findings/ |