Use of non-human primates in research

The report of Sir David Weatherall's working group on 'The use of non-human primates in research' was published in December 2006.

The remit of this report, which was initiated in March 2005 by the Academy, Medical Research Council, Royal Society and Wellcome Trust, was ‘to examine the scientific basis for recent, current and future use of non-human primates within biological and medical research’.

The report was the product of an independent working group; the sponsoring organisations did not provide input into the report's contents, conclusions or recommendations, but committed to consider its recommendations and to respond formally.

One of the recommendations of the Weatherall report was that the major funding organisations should undertake a systematic review of the outcomes of their research using non-human primates supported over the last decade. In 2011, the BBSRC, MRC and Wellcome Trust responded to this recommendation by commissioning and funding an independent 'Review of Research Using Non-Human Primates', which was led by Professor Sir Patrick Bateson FRS. The Bateson review aimed to: assess the quality, outputs and impacts of research in this area on advancing knowledge in human and animal health; identify the strengths and weaknesses of the funded science in this field; inform their future science and funding strategies; and feed the outcomes of the review into any Government strategy on NHP use. 

Sir David Weatherall FRS FMedSci (Chair), Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford

Dr Peter Goodfellow FRS FMedSci, Senior Vice-President, Discovery Research, GlaxoSmithKline

Professor John Harris FMedSci, Sir David Alliance Professor of Bioethics, University of Manchester

Professor Robert Hinde CBE FRS FBA, Sub-department of Animal Behaviour, University of Cambridge

Professor Dame Louise Johnson FRS, David Phillips Professor of Molecular Biophysics, University of Oxford

Professor Richard Morris FRS FRSE FMedSci, Professor of Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh

Mr Nick Ross, Broadcaster

Sir John Skehel FRS FMedSci, Director, MRC National Institute for Medical Research

Sir Crispin Tickell, Director of the Policy Foresight Programme, James Martin Institute for Science & Civilisation, University of Oxford

The Earl of Selborne KBE FRS (Chair), Chancellor, University of Southampton

Professor Brian Greenwood CBE FRS FMedSci, Professor of Tropical Medicine, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Professor Tom Jessell FRS FMedSci, Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University

Professor Peter Lipton FMedSci, Head of Department of History & Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge

Professor David Perrett FBA FRSE, School of Psychology and Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, University of St Andrews

Professor Torsten Wiesel ForMem FRS, President Emeritus, The Rockefeller University, New York
 

• To examine the scientific basis for the past, current and future use of non-human primates within biological and medical research.
• To assess the nature and implications of recent and prospective changes in the UK and global capacity to undertake non-human primate research.
• To review the use of alternatives to non-human primates in different fields of biological and medical research.
• In undertaking these assessments, to take account of associated ethical, welfare and regulatory issues, particularly with regard to the 3Rs principle of replacement, refinement and reduction of animals in research.