Launched in 2014, the Provost’s Awards for excellence in animal research acknowledged staff who have made advances in the 3Rs, shown openness or demonstrated a long-term commitment to improving research practice.
Winners of the previous editions can be found in the Annual Reports.
Award winners for 2025
Application of the 3Rs, researchers - Professor Cesare Terraciano; Dr Danika Hayman, research associate; Dr Fatemeh Kermani, research associate; Miss Fani Koutentaki, PhD student; Dr Parisa Keshtkar, research associate; Miss Lorenza Koppers, PhD student; Mr Sam Reitemeier, Laboratory Technician.
These researchers received the Provost’s Award for their efforts to reduce and then replace all animal procedures to study the electrophysiology of heart disease. Thanks to their approach, the team first pioneered the use of human stem cell-derived engineered heart tissue for cardiovascular research. They were the first to apply human iPSC-cardiomyocytes to tissue engineering. Then they developed a method to maximise the use of heart tissue. This living myocardial slice enables the preparation of multiple samples from the same heart, resulting in a substantial reduction in the number of animals required for research. Finally, they have fully capitalised on the opportunity to use donor human hearts for cardiovascular research. This work was funded by the NC3Rs and has led to several publications.
Application of the 3Rs, CBS Staff - Miss Amy Wathen, NTCO
Miss Wathen receives the Provost's Award for her dedication to her role and for being an extensively active trainer and assessor in a variety of procedures involving all species used by researchers. She has introduced training packages to be delivered to users and is responsible for maintaining up-to-date training records for over 600 users. Recently, Amy took over the assessments of invasive recovery surgeries, ensuring that users receive appropriate guidelines, advice, training, and competency without delaying their work, while also complying with ASPeL requirements and CBS's culture of care. Her continuous professionalism, availability, and dedication ensure that the welfare of the animals is at the highest standards, surgical procedures are refined, and PIL holders are competent to proceed with their experiments promptly.
Team award - Dr Yu Liu, Research Operations Manager and Mr Phil Rawson, Senior Animal Technician
This team received the Provost’s Award for working together to introduce new refinements in the H3 facility. They managed to implement ScruffGuard to refine mouse injection procedures. Moreover, Yu and Phil also introduced a new system to refine the measurement of mouse body temperature. Their refinement work has a significant impact on improving animal welfare and research quality both internally and externally. Their dedication to seeking the best practice in animal procedures is inspiring and has fostered a better 3Rs culture for the H3 animal facility.
Public Engagement award - Miss Katherine Tyson, Research Technician
Miss Tyson receive the Provost 'Award for her efforts to effectively explaining how animal research works, why it is important, and how the principles of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement) ensure animal welfare in every donor event, sharing her expertise, passion, and love for her work to inspire and educate others. Moreover, contributed to science communication through writing. She co-authored an article with Hasan Mirza for STEM Dorado, a free children's science magazine with contributors from universities across the UK. Her article, titled "Mice are Superheroes", was designed for readers aged 9–14 and featured engaging cartoons alongside real-life experimental images. The piece explained the significance of animal research, the careful design of experiments, and the various mouse models used in scientific studies. She highlighted how mice are "tiny but mighty helpers in the world of cancer research" and emphasised the gratitude we owe them for their role in advancing scientific discoveries. Through her dedication to outreach and education, Kathie has made a meaningful impact on animal research and public engagement.