Culture of Care Network

The Swiss Culture of Care Network aims promote and facilitate the culture of care at institutions in Switzerland. The term Culture of Care (CoC) is used in the laboratory animal science community to indicate a commitment to improve animal welfare, scientific quality, conditions for staff working with animals and transparency for stakeholders. Establishing an effective CoC means implementing strategies that advocate a mind-set and behavior of continuous and proactive work to progress and promote laboratory animal welfare and the 3Rs at a level above and beyond a culture of pure legal compliance.

The CoC network`s main goal is to introduce the CoC concept to a wider audience of diverse stakeholders in Switzerland.

To bring together different stakeholders from Switzerland and to facilitate the implementation of CoC and 3Rs methods in Switzerland, the Swiss CoC network has been established together with the Swiss 3R Competence Centre in 2019.

The aims of the CoC network align with the 3RCCs overall goal to change mindsets and promote good 3Rs practice.

It may support the 3RCC in the field of education, communication and monitoring of CoC related topics.

The CoC network aims to serve as an umbrella for stakeholders interested in all aspects related to CoC in Switzerland.

It aims to inform about the concept, disseminate CoC resources and best practice examples and to support initiatives that are linked to CoC, for example at Swiss universities, industry or societies involved or interested in animal experimentation.

The Network is self-organizing but hosted by the 3RCC.