The partners of TPI Utrecht

Utrecht University, together with the University Medical Centre Utrecht (UMC Utrecht), the Hogeschool Utrecht and various biotech companies at the Utrecht Science Park, collaborate on the transition from (fundamental) research to patient application and valorisation.

On the basis of this unique and internationally distinctive ecosystem, we have been working to reduce the use of laboratory animals in various ways and in various bodies over the past years. In addition, Utrecht University, as the only university in the Netherlands with a faculty of veterinary medicine, has a long tradition when it comes to animal health and animal welfare research and education. Besides replacing, reducing and refining animal testing, we have made a strong commitment to the transition to animal-free innovation within our campus, including through the establishment of TPI Utrecht. Our ambition is to be frontrunners in the field of animal-free innovation and to continue to play a pioneering role, both nationally and internationally.

Together with UMC Utrecht, Eindhoven University of Technology and Wageningen University & Research, UU participates in the strategic alliance EWUU. This brings together a wide range of expertise: from the humanities and social sciences to medical sciences, life sciences, exact and technical sciences and agricultural and food sciences. Based on the motto 'challenging future generations', the alliance puts young researchers, teachers and students at the helm to work together, across disciplines. By pooling knowledge, the EWUU contributes to societal transitions in health, food, energy and sustainability. The transition to animal-free innovation is a sustainability story.

TPI Utrecht is connected to the Strategic Theme Life Sciences and with the Graduate School of Life Sciences . This is one of the largest Life Sciences Clusters worldwide, employing some 3,500 researchers. Ultimately, an important aspect of a very large part of this research is the translation of fundamental knowledge to patients. More specifically, the theme of animal-free innovation has its origins within this cluster; on the one hand due to the many initiatives related to the translation of biomedical research to humans and the excellent track record that e.g. UMC Utrecht has in this respect, and on the other hand due to the presence of the only Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in the Netherlands on campus. With its knowledge on animals, including laboratory animals and the 3R principles, but also on animal welfare, Utrecht is the ideal place to shape the transition to non-animal testing innovation with a solid substantive basis.