Every year, the science information initiative Tierversuche verstehen awards its Quality Seal for Exemplary Communication in Animal Research to scientific organizations and institutions that are particularly committed to transparent and open communication and dialogue about animal experiments and animal research.

Among this year’s recipients of the award is the Ernst Strüngmann Institute, which for around a year has been proactively informing the public about the scientific basis, methods, successes and limitations of animal research at ESI in an innovative, low-threshold, and virtually real-time manner via a transparency platform - and has made this information directly accessible via eye-catching QR codes on the building itself.

Receiving the seal of quality for this communication approach “is a great honor for us and a strong motivation to continue,” said research group leader Dr. Jean Laurens, who works with non-human primates at the ESI and accepted the seal on behalf of the ESI. “We believe that critical voices are indispensable,” he emphasized during the award ceremony, ”and we are committed to transparency and openness toward the public. We believe that meaningful dialogue must always be based on honesty and mutual respect, and we are convinced that this is the only way to build lasting trust together.”

The ESI is already conducting research across the entire spectrum of methods. At the beginning of a research project, the question of which method is the right one must always be answered. As a general rule, animal research is only used if other methods are not suitable for answering the research questions.

Click here for the transparency platform Transparenzplattform

Click here for the laudatory speech Laudatio