Mission statement for the Laboratory Animal Unit,
Norwegian School of Veterinary Science
1. The Unit's primary aims are:
- to be a national centre of competence within the field of laboratory animal
science.
- to provide facilities, animals and knowledge of laboratory animal science for
research and teaching, in keeping with the School's activity programme and
strategy document.
- to participate in the international efforts to refine or replace animal
experiments, in agreement with the ideals embodied in the three R's
(Replacement, Reduction, Refinement).
2) In order to achieve these primary aims, the Unit has the following
secondary goals:
- the Unit aims to be Norway's leading centre of competence within the following
sectors:
- teaching and training in laboratory
animal science
- alternatives to animal experiments
- health monitoring of laboratory animals
- the spreading of information about animal
experimentation
- animal welfare and ethics as applied
to laboratory animals
the Unit will continue to improve its own
quality assurance to ensure both that the experiments performed there conform
to existing legislation and ethical standards, and that the results of these
experiments are reliable and reproducible.
3) Strategies to achieve these aims:
- through cooperation with the National Institute of Public Health and the
National Veterinary Institute, the Unit will work for an expansion of its
facilities and an increase in the number of scientific and
technical/administrative staff.
- the Unit will arrange courses in laboratory animal science and will assist
other institutions in their efforts to arrange their own courses. Such courses
will be held for veterinary students, animal nurse students, researchers,
technicians and competent persons (ansvarshavende). The production
of compendia, the spread of information on the Internet and internal training
of the Unit's staff are all important aids to this work. Courses for external
users will be self-financing.
- the Unit will carry out research both for the School's own
researchers and for external users. This work results in experience and a
contact network that is useful both for future research at the Unit and
for teaching content, at the same time as it increases the Unit's external
income.
- the Unit will build up competence on alternatives to animal
experiments, among other things by means of its own database, which ought to be
financed totally by external income.
- the Unit will use its own Internet server actively to spread
information about laboratory animal science to users and the general public.
This information includes electronic tours of the Unit in several languages.
- the Unit will play an active role in the debate in the society
on the use of animals in general, and of laboratory animals in particular.
An important part of this work will continue to be guided tours for
schoolchildren.
- the Unit will continue to offer its services to the civil service within the
field of laboratory animal science, under conditions to be discussed, in
particular in relation to matters arising during the implementation of the
European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrates used for Scientific and
other Purposes.
Approved by the Board of the School on 30th September 1998.
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