Animal Welfare Research Network

对许多公众来说，动物福利仍然是一个重要的问题。在2016年欧洲晴雨表对近28,000名欧盟公民的调查中，94%的人认为保护农场动物的福利很重要，57%的人认为这样做非常重要（Special Eurobarometer 442, 2016）。结果是，关于动物使用和动物福利的辩论可能是高度紧张和情绪化的事情，容易受到既得利益者和有偏见的论点的影响。然而，政府和其他利益相关者对未来方向的决定需要基于尽可能公正和客观的信息。这些信息来自系统和科学的动物福利研究。因此，一个强大而持久的动物福利研究界对于支持维持和改善动物福利的明智决策至关重要。为了在英国动物福利研究社区（可能是世界上最大的同类社区）内部实现更大的互动和凝聚力，动物福利研究网络（AWRN）于2016年成立。从那时起，它的成员已经增长到近500人，其中包括动物福利研究人员，还有神经科学家、免疫学家、社会和政治科学家和其他学者，以及来自慈善机构、工业、研究资助机构、政策制定者和政府的代表。调查显示，成员们通过形成新的合作、提高他们作为研究人员的技能、提高他们对动物福利研究的理解、更加意识到该领域的机会以及成功获得资助而受益。在AWRN的下一阶段，我们的目标是继续和发展我们的活动，包括：(i)举办为期两天的年会，其中包括网络活动、研讨会（例如资助写作）和邀请演讲者的研究聚光灯会议；（ii）发展早期职业研究人员（ECR）活动，以激励、鼓励和指导早期职业研究人员发展成为下一代的初级职业研究人员，领导研究拨款申请和建立动物福利研究小组（例如通过研究人员交流和跨研究所的博士培训和指导）；（iii）每年资助3个由成员主导的研讨会，将动物福利研究人员和其他相关领域的利益相关者/研究人员聚集在一起，讨论新兴的感兴趣的话题，举办培训课程，并建立新的联系（每年至少有一个研讨会将为ecr设立围栏）；（iv）维护和发展我们的网站（awrn.co.uk），特别注重鼓励使用面向内部的成员区域进行讨论，分享有关方法、技能、新技术和发现的信息；(v)进一步增加会员，包括在潜在网络联合资助者（UFAW）的支持下探索国际化的潜力；（六）探索未来的资助机会，包括与UFAW和OpenPhilanthropy等机构合作，后者已经开始资助与动物福利相关的项目，并考虑征收入会费或认购费。

Animal welfare continues to be an important issue for many members of the public. In a 2016 Eurobarometer survey of nearly 28,000 EU citizens, 94% believed that it was important to protect the welfare of farmed animals, and 57% said that it was very important to do so (Special Eurobarometer 442, 2016). A consequence is that debates on animal usage and animal welfare can be highly charged and emotive affairs, open to the influence of vested interests and biased argument. However, decisions by government and other stakeholders for future directions need to be based on information that is as unbiased and objective as possible. This information comes from systematic and scientific animal welfare research. A strong and sustained animal welfare research community is thus essential to underpin well-informed decisions that maintain and improve welfare. To achieve greater interaction and cohesion within the UK animal welfare research community (probably the largest of its kind in the world), the Animal Welfare Research Network (AWRN) was set up in 2016. Since that time, its membership has grown to nearly 500, including animal welfare researchers but also neuroscientists, immunologists, social and political scientists and other academics, alongside representatives from charities, industry, research funding organisastions, policy-makers and government. Surveys indicate that members have benefitted by forming new collaborations, improving their skills as a researcher, improving their understanding of animal welfare research, becoming more aware of opportunities in the area, and achieving grant success.In the next phase of the AWRN, we aim to continue and develop our activities including: (i) running 2-day annual meetings which incorporate networking activities, workshops (e.g. grant-writing), and research spotlight sessions with invited speakers; (ii) developing our early career researcher (ECR) activities to stimulate, encourage and mentor ECRs to develop into the next generation of PIs leading research grants applications and establishing animal welfare research groups (e.g. via researcher-exchange and cross-institute PhD training and mentoring); (iii) funding 3 member-led workshops per year to bring together animal welfare researchers and stakeholders / researchers in other relevant areas to discuss emerging topics of interest, run training sessions, and develop new contacts (at least one of these will be ring-fenced for ECRs each year); (iv) maintaining and developing our website (awrn.co.uk) with a particular focus on encouraging use of the internal-facing members area for discussion, sharing of information on methods, skills, new technologies, and findings; (v) further increasing membership, including exploring the potential for internationalisation with the support of a potential Network co-funder (UFAW); (vi) exploring future funding opportunities, including with UFAW and also bodies such as OpenPhilanthropy which has started to fund animal welfare-related projects, and considering the imposition of joining or subscription fees.