Animal Materials Working Group (AMWG)

The acquisition and use of animal materials and/or animal-derived materials is a wide-reaching subject area in terms of material provenance, material type, purpose of use and the role of the materials within that purpose, associated legislative landscape, the requirement for ethical consideration and, encompassing these, the appropriate level of due diligence.

All of which creates a challenging landscape for organisations and researchers to navigate.

The Animal Materials Working Group (AMWG) has been established to address the challenges that are currently faced in carrying out legal and ethical review of the sourcing of this type of material, to work to set standards and guidelines to facilitate these activities, and enable a consistent, transparent and collaborative approach in meeting these challenges.

As part of undertaking this work, a thorough review of current resources (including documentation, tools, guidance and legislative material) is essential to ensure that any guidance and standards enable legal compliance, and that we draw on the already valuable sources of information currently available across the scope of the project. We are carrying this out both regarding resources developed locally within organisations, as well as wider reaching documentation.

If you would be interested in supplying resources from within your organisation, please be assured that any and all documentation will be treated as confidential and will not be shared outside of the Working Group members. Additionally if you would like to be involved or kept up to date with the progress of the Group, please further information here.