Dr. Robert Landsiedel, head of the work group for short-term toxicology in the experimental toxicology and ecology department at BASF SE, andhis team are this year's recipient of the Animal Welfare Research Award 2013. BASF develops alternatives to animal experiments and already conducts at least a third of its routine tests using animal-free methods, making the concern BASF a beacon amongst the major enterprises with regard to animal-free test methods.

The Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine (IUF) at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf will receive 1.2 million euros from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for the validation of a test procedure developed under the direction of Prof. Dr. Ellen Fritsche. The goal of this test procedure is to study the toxic effect of chemicals on the development of the human brain.

Aksea Precision Engineering GmbH and with three other companies has received this year’s Dr. Rudolf Eberle Prize, awarded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Finance and Economics. The company was honoured for its development of a cell culture reactor that can incubate cell cultures with a test substance, thus reducing animal tests in sub-chronic toxicity testing procedures.

On 21 November 2013, the European Parliament approved the adoption of “Horizon 2020”, the new EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation that  will invest about 70 billion euros in research and development, beginning 1 January 2014.