Culture of Care Award
Every year during International Laboratory Animal Technician Week, we present the Culture of Care Award to an animal caretaker, animal technician or team that has made an extra effort to promote the CoC.
The Culture of Care Award was created by the AWB in 2022 to encourage a culture of care for animals and people. Animal caretakers and laboratory animal technicians can be nominated for the award because they play an important role in this.
Animal technicians and caretakers who work at one of UU or UMC Utrecht's animal facilities can be nominated for the award. This can also be a team! Are you inspired by someone? Or has a colleague of yours developed a great idea? Nominate that person or complete team and tell us why you think this person(s) deserves the prize.
We assess each nomination on the following aspects:
- Care and welfare of laboratory animals
- Innovative ideas, small or large, that lead to improvements that lead to improvements in the welfare of animals or humans
- Inspirational for colleagues, creating openness and dialogue
- Transparency, sharing ideas with colleagues across the country
The award winners to date:
The Culture of Care Award 2026 was won by the Team for large animals and surgery of the Joint Animal Laboratory (GDL). The team, consisting of Danielle van Remmerden, Helma Avezaat, Hester de Bruin, Jeroen van Ark and Tamara Beukhof, has done a great deal to enrich the lives of the larger laboratory animals in particular. For example, the pigs have a large playroom with a wide variety of play materials, there are daily play sessions with animal caretakers, and the pigs roam freely through the corridors. The animals also experience less stress during blood sampling thanks to training with apple juice, and similar methods have been applied to sheep and goats. The dogs play outside every day and are given cognitive challenges. This approach not only improves animal welfare, but also increases job satisfaction among employees.
The team Animal Care of Companion Animals of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine has emerged as the winner of the Culture of Care Prize 2025. The team, consisting of Ewout Hoogendoorn, Doenja van Mourik, Nadine van der Hoeff, Bob Danckaarts, Magali Heuvelmans and Patricia de Wit, was praised by the jury for its cooperation, in which care for the animals as well as the team comes first.
According to Claudia Vinke, who presented the award with Mieneke Luijendijk: "You establish a culture together. By working together, you have achieved a lot, more than each of you could do on your own. I hope this award is therefore also an inspiration for other teams to connect.”
Kim van der Waaij, veterinary technician at Utrecht University’s equine clinic within the Department of Clinical Sciences., received the Culture of Care Award in 2024. According to the jury, Kim plays a crucial role in propagating the right culture when it comes to animal experiments and laboratory animals. 'She not only keeps a close eye on the welfare of the test horses, but also coordinates all the administration about this and forms the link between the shop floor, the test animal coordinator and the researchers.'
The jury awards the Culture of Care Award to Anja van der Sar for her exceptional dedication to both researchers and animals. She is approachable, critical, creative and always willing to help, train and contribute ideas for improvements. Anja takes time for animals in experiments, discusses follow-up steps and seeks alternative, more animal-friendly techniques. Her customer-friendliness is remarkable: she is always available and offers reliable support. As a key figure within GDL Klein, colleagues and jury members unanimously confirm her value.
Anne-Marie has extensive experience with animal experimentation and the possibilities offered, or which she considers necessary, to reduce the discomfort of laboratory animals. She does this in an enthusiastic and proactive manner, together with the researchers, consulting other colleagues where necessary. She actively shares her knowledge and experience, both within and outside the institute, in an engaging and inspiring way, thereby indirectly but actively contributing to CoC.
Nicky cares deeply about both laboratory animals and animal testing. She works openly and cheerfully with researchers to reduce and refine animal testing and to transfer the methods used. In this way, she also involves the researchers in the CoC. As one of the people wrote: “Among the animal technicians, she stands out for her commitment to better the life of experimental animals, and for her willingness to help us, the researchers.”