Each year, AWI awards several Refinement Grants to investigators in the United States and Canada to support innovative research projects aimed at improving the welfare of animals in research. We wish to congratulate this year’s winners:
- Sasha Prasad-Shreckengast (CUNY Hunter College) for a project assessing voluntary interaction of carp with novel environmental enrichment items that promote cognitive stimulation and agency.
- Dr. Lucía Améndola (University of British Columbia) for a systematic review of the literature to critically evaluate the effects of different environmental enrichment strategies on affective states in mice.
- Dr. Giridhar Athrey and Constance Woodman (Texas A&M University) to test the suitability of 3D printing materials for use as environmental enrichment items for laboratory animals, especially for avian species.
- Brittney Armitage-Brown (Queen’s University) to test rhesus macaque preferences for physical versus touchscreen-based tasks used as cognitive enrichment.
- Dr. Christopher Cheleuitte-Nieve (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) for a study assessing the effects of natural, species-appropriate, visual environments on stress and behavior of indoor-housed macaques and African green monkeys.
- Margaret Dye (Duke Lemur Center) to build and assess an enrichment management tracking system for documenting and monitoring multiple enrichment activities that impact an animal’s environment and welfare.