Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to diverting public funding from animal-based research projects towards those that use human-specific research approaches.

Research and innovation involving animals is funded where no alternatives exist, in line with UK legislation. Research using animals and animal models has had significant impacts for the UK, supporting government’s healthcare missions, Net Zero, and One Health priorities. UKRI invests directly to reduce reliance on the use of animals, including ca.£10m per annum from BBSRC and MRC for the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs).

UKRI also supports ‘human-specific’ research, for example ca.£22.5m commitment over two years to the MRC Experimental medicine programme, a £15m call on Novel human in vitro models of complex disease with NC3Rs and Wellcome, and an £18m call for Experimental medicine to define new mechanisms of neurodegeneration. The use of human specific approaches has increased.