Advancing Actionable Alternatives to Vertebrate Animal Testing for Chemical Safety Assessment

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications proposing research that will promote the development and use of alternative test methods and strategies that address the “3Rs” of toxicity testing: 1) reduce, 2) refine, and/or 3) replace vertebrate animal testing. For the purposes of this RFA, alternative test methods refer to those that incorporate the “3Rs” principles. Pertinent research includes approaches such as analog/read-across techniques, mathematical models, and tiered testing approaches that integrate evidence from multiple sources to help accomplish these goals. In addition to the development of new alternative test methods and strategies, translational science approaches that use available data to develop and/or advance actionable approaches for risk assessment of chemicals are also critical. In this context, approaches that facilitate the use of existing animal data sources to reduce, refine, or replace the need for new vertebrate animal tests are as welcome as those that provide new data streams. The research activities to be funded under this announcement are intended to advance the science underpinning the use of non-vertebrate test methods, and to develop actionable alternative approaches to: 1) developmental toxicity tests in humans; 2) reproductive toxicity tests in humans; and/or 3) ecotoxicity tests.